Bio

Bio

Dr. Elyse Rosa is a Research Associate at the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University, and Assistant Professor (Part-Time) in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences. Dr. Rosa completed her PhD in Neuroscience, and postdoctoral fellowship in Biochemistry & Biomedical Sciences within the Stem Cell & Cancer Research Institute at McMaster University, where her research focused on genetic risk factors associated with autism spectrum disorder and associated neurodegenerative disorders. In her current role, Dr. Rosa is the scientific and evaluation lead on several initiatives, including the Learning Health System for Neurodevelopment. Her work largely focuses on evaluating methods of healthcare delivery and service primarily for children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Current Focus Areas

Current Focus Areas

• Focused work on evaluating methods of healthcare delivery and service primarily for children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Project: Developing a Pediatric Learning Health System for Neurodevelopment
The Pediatric Learning Health System (LHS) for Neurodevelopment project is a collaborative co-design initiative between McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences. The project is being designed, piloted and evaluated within the Ron Joyce Children’s Health Centre (RJCHC), which will inform the creation of a Pan-Canadian Network. The project purpose is to break down silos that currently exist and hinder optimal healthcare for children with diverse needs. Cross-sectional and longitudinal data collection will pave the way for evidence-informed care for children and their families receiving care at RJCHC. This work has the capacity to change the way children receive healthcare in our country and the concurrent evaluation of this work will enable an iterative loop of continuous improvement, ensuring the LHS evolves and optimizes its outputs over time to generate a system that drives positive patient outcomes and delivers high-quality healthcare services that are rooted in the child and family experience.

Career Highlights

Career Highlights

• Evaluation of Virtual Care for Children in Ontario: A broad-scope unbiased evaluation of virtual care offered to children in Ontario during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on three unique populations: parents/caregivers, service providers and organizational leaders. Clinical areas of focus included Autism services, Behavioural services, Psychology services, Occupational Therapy services, Speech-Language Pathology services, Physiotherapy services, Social Work services and Therapy/Counselling services.
• Examination of genetic factors associated with autism: Utilized induced-pluripotent stem cells during postdoctoral fellowship to characterize the disruption of specific autism-associated genes, namely SCN2A and DIXDC1.
• Examination of molecular pathways disrupted in neurodegenerative diseases: Investigated the downregulation of critical neurotrophic factors in animal and cellular models of neurodegeneration.