Extended Reality (XR) technologies are rapidly transforming medicine and healthcare by enabling immersive, interactive, and data-driven approaches to clinical practice, education, and patient care. Applications span surgical planning, intraoperative guidance, rehabilitation, clinical training, and remote healthcare systems. Despite this progress, research in XR for medicine remains spread across technical, clinical, and human-centered communities.

The The 3rd International Workshop on Medical Extended Reality (MedicalXR2026) brings together two established workshop communities: XR-MED, previously held at IEEE ISMAR 2025 and IEEE VR 2026, and the XR Health workshop series, held at IEEE VR from 2022 to 2026. By joining these communities under the Medical XR theme, the workshop creates a shared forum for clinical XR applications, medical training and simulation, human-centered interaction, and healthcare-focused evaluation.

The workshop focuses on three complementary perspectives: XR systems for general clinical applications, XR technologies for medical training and simulation, and XR technologies for intraoperative and surgical applications. By integrating these perspectives, the workshop aims to connect work across the full pipeline, from technology development and simulation-based training to clinical deployment and validation.

Bringing together researchers, clinicians, healthcare professionals, and industry representatives working on XR for medicine and healthcare, the workshop provides a forum to share new ideas, discuss clinical and technical challenges, and foster collaboration.

The organizers solicit paper submissions of 4–6 pages, with up to 2 additional pages for references, using the VGTC conference format. Workshop materials will be included and published in the conference proceedings. Four submission types are welcome: technical papers presenting innovative XR systems, techniques, prototypes, or implementations for medical and healthcare contexts; evaluation studies reporting quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method research on XR use in medical settings; position papers offering conceptual, theoretical, or methodological perspectives that open new research directions; and demo or poster submissions presenting early-stage work, prototypes, practical implementations, or ongoing research.

We invite researchers, clinicians, and practitioners to submit their work to Medical XR 2026, a workshop advancing extended reality technologies for medicine, healthcare, and medical training. Building on the XR-MED and XR Health communities, the workshop provides a focused forum for clinically grounded, technically rigorous, and human-centered XR research. Topics span surgical training and simulation, clinical decision support, patient care, usability, validation, and clinical integration. Join us in shaping the future of XR technologies in medicine and healthcare. Topics of Interest (but are not limited to):

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