Leong Centre Rounds

The Leong Centre Rounds lecture series, in partnership with Child Health Evaluative Sciences (CHES) at the SickKids Research Institute, provides a venue to host researchers, community members and policy users to showcase how they are making an impact on child health equity.

When: Last Monday of the month, unless otherwise indicated.

Where: Virtually on Microsoft Teams until further notice. 

Host: Eyal Cohen MD, MSc, FRCPC
Program Head, Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children
Co-Director, Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Children

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Presentation Archive

2023

Thursday, December 14, 2023 | Brain & Mental Health Grand Rounds and Leong Centre: “The Impact of COVID-19 on Child and Youth Mental Health”

Research on the impact of COVID-19 on child and youth mental health suggests a deterioration on most mental health indicators. This webinar presentation discusses discrepancies in the data and highlights best practice recommendations for a post-pandemic recovery in this area of health.

Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in School-Based Mental Health and Violence Prevention at the University of Ottawa where she is cross-appointed as a full professor in Counselling Psychology, Faculty of Education and the School of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences.

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Monday, October 23, 2023 | Leong Centre Rounds with CHES: “Prenatal Opioid Exposure: Supporting Healthy Beginnings”

This webinar presentation reviews the latest research on prenatal opioid exposure in Ontario, its impact on child health, and discusses opportunities for promoting healthy child development in Canada. 

Dr. Andi Camden is a CIHR-funded Postdoctoral Fellow and epidemiologist who specializes in maternal and child health. Her research levers administrative data to investigate medication use, including opioids, in pregnancy and associated maternal and child health outcomes. She holds a PhD in Public Health Sciences in Epidemiology and an MPH in Epidemiology from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. She is currently affiliated with the Leong Centre for Healthy Children at SickKids, Department of Health & Society at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and ICES.

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Monday, June 12, 2023 | Leong Centre Rounds with CHES: “Epigenetics and the Human Life Course”

This webinar presentation highlights the importance and complexity of epigenetics across the human life course; outlines various ways by which the epigenome can inform on human health and disease, and; discusses opportunities for collaborative research in human epigenetics and the new Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging at UBC.

Dr. Michael Kobor is an expert in social epigenetics, and leads a program of interdisciplinary research at UBC with the goal of translating foundational genetic discovery into interventions and policy change to promote healthy life trajectories. He is also the inaugural Edwin S.H. Leong UBC Chair in Healthy Aging – a UBC President’s Excellence Chair, and leading a new UBC research centre focused on healthy aging.

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Monday, May 1, 2023 | Leong Centre Rounds with CHES: "Pediatric Migrant Health: Challenges and Opportunities"

This webinar presentation provides an overview of the key frameworks in the field of pediatric migrant health; highlights important inequities and challenges when providing care to pediatric migrants, and; discusses various approaches to supporting the delivery of diversity-sensitive care. 

Dr. Julia Brandenberger is a European pediatrician specialized in pediatric emergency care. She is also a post-doctoral fellow at the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Children. Her main project uses linked, population based data to identify health inequities in pediatric immigrants in Ontario. 

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Monday, April 17, 2023 | Leong Centre with CHES: "The PATCHD Project: Co-designing a Multi-Pronged Intervention to Support Families of Children with Developmental Disabilities"

This webinar presentation provides an overview of the impact of COVID-19 on families with developmental disability within Toronto's inner city; highlights the design and impact of the PATCHD project, and; reflects on the use of community-based participatory action research as a method to address child health inequities. 

Dr. Shazeen Suleman is a general pediatrician and Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford University in the Division of General Pediatrics. She is also the Co-Director of Community Engagement in the Office of Child Health Equity and the Pediatric Residency Advocacy Program.

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Monday, March 27, 2023 | Leong Centre with Health Equity Rounds: "Sickle Cell Disease: Double Burdens of Morbidity and Racial Disparities"

This webinar presentation provides an overview of the causes of sickle cell disease; explains why it is common amongst Black people; highlights the impact of systemic racism on the experiences of those living with this disease, and; reflects on the new Ontario Health quality standards for the treatment of sickle cell disease. 

Dr. Isaac Odame is the Section Head of Haematology in the Division of Haematology/Oncology at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). He is also the Medical Director of the Global Sickle Cell Disease Network in the Centre for Global Child Health at SickKids.

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Monday, February 27, 2023 | Leong Centre Rounds with CHES: "Monitoring and Contextualizing Population-Level Early Child Development in Canada, with a Focus on British Columbia"

This webinar presentation provides an overview of the Early Development Instrument at the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University; highlights the characteristics of a neighbourhood level socio-economic index, and; discusses how it has been used.  

Dr. Barry Forer is a research methodologist and statistician at the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) at the University of British Columbia. 

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Monday, January 23, 2023 | Leong Centre with Health Equity Rounds: "Food Insecurity in Child Health Care"

This webinar presentation provides an overview of the relationship between food insecurity and child health outcomes; discusses the contribution of food insecurity to child health disparities, and; highlights financial interventions to address food insecurity in child health care.

Dr. Meta van den Heuvel is a staff pediatrician at the Hospital for Sick Children and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto.

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2022

Monday, November 28, 2022 | Leong Centre Rounds with CHES: " SHARE-ing Insights: Sexual Health And Reproductive Empowerment for Youth, by Youth"

This webinar presentation focuses on 1) how adolescents’ experiences of sexual and reproductive services have been impacted by COVID-19, and 2) what are potential policy and program solutions to address and enhance adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Dr. Ashley Vandermorris, staff paediatrician in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and a member of the SickKids Centre for Global Child, and the SHARE Project Youth Researchers co-present at this event. 

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Monday, May 30, 2022 | Leong Centre Rounds with CHES: "Results for Every Child in Canada. How UNICEF-Canada Secures Children's Rights and Well-Being"

This webinar presentation focuses on an overview of the work UNICEF Canada does in the country with children and highlights aspects of work that align closely with the Centre and its members around research and data related to child well-being.  

Lisa Wolff is the Director of Policy and Research at UNICEF Canada. She works with diverse partners across issues and sectors to advocate for and with children and youth.

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Monday, April 25, 2022 | Leong Centre Rounds with CHES: "Children's Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence: Linking Practice and Policy with Evidence”

Dr. Harriet MacMillan is a psychiatrist and pediatrician conducting family violence research. She is a Distinguished University Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, and Pediatrics at McMaster University with associate membership in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact. Harriet holds the Chedoke Health Chair in Child Psychiatry.

Her research focuses on the epidemiology of violence against children and women; she has led randomized controlled trials evaluating the effectiveness of approaches to preventing child maltreatment and intimate partner violence. 

Monday, April 4, 2022 | Leong Centre Rounds with CHES: "Improving Outcomes for Pregnant People and Infants affected by the Opioid Crisis"

This webinar presentations focuses on the opioid crisis in the United States. Dr. Stephen W. Patrick discusses how traditional models of caring for opioid infants are inefficient and expensive, and that better outcomes can be achieved with newer models that keep mother and infant together.

Dr. Stephen W. Patrick is the Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and an attending neonatologist at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. He also currently serves as an Adjunct Physician Policy Research at RAND Corporation and is a Guest Researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is a graduate of the University of Florida, Florida State University College of Medicine and Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Patrick completed his training in pediatrics, neonatology and health services research as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Michigan.

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Monday, February 28, 2022 | Leong Centre Rounds with CHES: "Children's Pathways through Health Care, Education and Social Care Services in England: The ECHILD Database."

This webinar presentation focuses on discussing the ECHILD Database - a newly developed administrative data resource which includes that links de-identified hospital, education and social care records for all children in England. The session objectives are to discuss the origins and reasons for creating the ECHILD Database, and to outline how the research project team is addressing governance challenges and building public trust.

Ruth Gilbert is a clinical epidemiologist. Much of her research uses de-identified, administrative data to address clinical and policy questions related to the health of children and families. Her research uses record linkage to consider health, social and educational trajectories of children from birth to adulthood and to incorporate information from parents and siblings.

Ruth co-directs the NIHR Children and Families Policy Research which provides evidence for government. She also contributes to the Rare Diseases research within the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre, focusing on congenital anomalies.

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2021

Thursday, November 11, 2021 | Leong Centre with Health Equity Rounds: “Ethical Considerations in the Collection and Use of Socio-demographic Data in Health Care”

The session objectives were to discuss the SickKids Health Equity Data Collection Initiative, barriers that prevent patient family partners from sharing their data and strategies to increase trust in engagement, and the ethical use and governance of equity data.

Dr. Astrid Guttmann is a general paediatrician and Senior Scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children, Professor of Paediatrics, Health Policy and Public Health, and Co-Director of the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Children at the University of Toronto. Her research aims to improve child health through population-based studies that inform or evaluate health system programs and policies with a focus on health equity.

Karima Karmali is the Director of the Centre for Innovation & Excellence in Child- and Family-Centred Care at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. In this role, Karima provides strategic leadership to advance child- and family-centred care using innovative programs to meet the complex needs of patients and families.

Dr. Melissa McCradden is a Bioethicist with the Department of Bioethics at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). In her role, she provides clinical and organizational consultation, gives education to staff and trainees, participates and leads policy development, and conducts research. Her areas of scholarship and research include artificial intelligence/machine learning, precision child health, paediatric bioethics, and research ethics.

Tina (Tee) Garnett has served in the inaugural position of Executive Lead and Strategic Advisor, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion since March 2021 at The Hospital for Sick Children. Garnett possesses over two decades of developing and facilitating EDI and human rights-based workshops for academic institutions, hospitals, governments, NGOs and Not-for-Profit or Grassroots Organizations.

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Monday, October 25, 2021 | Leong Centre Rounds with CHES: "Are Pre-Pandemic Data on Population-Level Patterns of Children’s Developmental Health Still Relevant?"

This talk addresses the concept of children’s developmental health at school entry and why it is possible to measure it at the population level; describes the opportunities to widen the inquiry into social determinants of health; considers how the existing research could inform public health policies post-pandemic.

Dr. Magdalena Janus earned a Ph.D. in behavioural sciences from Cambridge University and is a Professor at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences and the Offord Centre for Child Studies at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Canada, where she holds the Ontario Chair in Early Child Development.
She is a co-author, with the late Dr. Dan Offord, of the Early Development Instrument (EDI), a measure of children's developmental health at school entry. Her research interests include early development of children with and without developmental challenges, social determinants of children’s health and development trajectories, and indicators of child development.

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Thursday, September 30, 2021 | Leong Centre with Health Equity Rounds for Orange Shirt Day: "Complex Care in a Colonial World: Health Equity Through Trauma-Informed, Culturally Safe Practice"

Indigenous children frequently present as complex cases for one major reason: because colonialism is not good for Indigenous people. Providing specialized care to people who have experienced colonization means using trauma-informed care and culturally safe care to prevent further harm. On these rounds, we will examine the various forms of trauma that have been researched and defined over the past four decades, the effects of trauma on Indigenous people and what this means for their engagement strategies and coping methods, the effects of trauma on Indigenous family structure and function, how trauma changes a survivor’s relationship with their physical body, and the effects of colonization on personal and collective agency. This session will also provide clinicians and other staff with concrete actions you can take to provide trauma-informed care and support Indigenous approaches to healing and wellness.

Suzanne Methot is the author of the non-fiction book Legacy: Trauma, Story, and Indigenous Healing and co-author of the secondary textbook Aboriginal Beliefs, Values, and Aspirations. She has worked in advocacy and direct–service positions at Indigenous agencies since 1992, using Indigenous culture-based approaches to serve community members who are marginalized by racism, poverty, homelessness, health status, addictions, mental-health challenges, crime, and victimization, and is also a former board member at the Queen West Community Health Centre in Toronto. Suzanne currently works as a consultant to the education and health care sectors, working with school boards and organizations including the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Born in Vancouver and raised in Peace River, Alberta, Suzanne is Asiniwachi Nehiyaw (Rocky Mountain Cree) of mixed Indigenous and European heritage. She currently lives on the unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw Nation, near Nanaimo, BC.

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Monday, May 31, 2021 | Leong Centre Rounds with CHES: "School-Based Health Care: The Model Schools Pediatric Health" 

Dr. Sloane Freeman is a pediatrician in St. Michael's Hospital’s Inner City Health Program, who has dedicated her career to groundbreaking work and research bringing school-based health care to under-served communities. Dr. Freeman is the founder and lead for the Model Schools Pediatric Initiative, an innovative program to bring developmental and mental-health care to over 50 inner-city schools. Developed in partnership with the Toronto District School Board, the initiative is the first program of its kind in Canada. Dr. Freeman is a scientist with MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital, and an assistant professor in the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics.

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Thursday, May 6, 2021 | Psychiatry Grand Rounds with the Leong Centre: "What Have We Learned about Child Mental Health During the Pandemic?"

Jala Rizeq joined SickKids in September 2020 as a Clinical Research Fellow. She is funded through the Research Training Centre Clinician Scientist Training Program (CSTP) Fellowship and the Centre for Brain and Mental Health as a Kimel Family Fellow.

Katherine Tombeau Cost is a Research Associate in the Department of Psychiatry at SickKids. Prior to joining SickKids in 2016, she completed a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Tulane University in New Orleans, and a postdoctoral fellowship at University of Toronto and CAMH.

Natasha Saunders is a pediatrician and clinician-investigator in the Division of Pediatric Medicine at SickKids and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and IHPME at the University of Toronto. She is also an Adjunct Scientist in the Mental Health and Addictions and Life Stage programs ICES.

Alene Toulany is a Pediatrician and Adolescent Medicine Specialist at SickKids and Assistant Professor in the Department of Paediatrics and IHPME at the University of Toronto. She is also an Associate Scientist-Track Investigator at the SickKids Research Institute, an ICES Fellow and co-leads the Adolescent Medicine Consultation Service and Clinics at SickKids.

Tricia Williams is a Clinical Neuropsychologist at SickKids and leads the Neonatal Neuropsychological services for assessment and consultation for children & families.

Wednesday, May 5, 2021 | Paediatric Grand Rounds with the Leong Centre: "Reimagining our Communities: Co-Creating Healthier Futures in Partnership"

Dr. Ripudaman Singh Minhas, MD MPH FRCPC
Developmental Pediatrician, Women’s and Children’s Health Program
Director of Research, Department of Pediatrics, St. Michael’s Hospital,
Unity Health Toronto
Assistant Professor, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Associate Scientist, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute,
St. Michael’s Hospital

Dr. Shazeen Suleman, MD MPH (FRCPC)
Physician Lead, Newcomer to Canada Clinic
Undergraduate Medical Education Lead
Women and Children's Health, St. Michael's Hospital, Unity Health Toronto
Investigator, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Temerty Faculty of Medicine,
University of Toronto

Dr. Ashley Vandermorris, MD, MSc, FRCPC
Staff Physician, Division of Adolescent Medicine
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto

Monday, April 19, 2021 | Leong Centre Rounds with CHES: "Buffering Poverty-Related Risks for Children with Chronic Health Conditions: Is it all on the parents?"

Dr. Anne Fuller, MD, MSc, FRCPC is a paediatrician and early career clinical researcher at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), and a PhD student at McMaster University. Dr. Fuller’s research is focused on understanding the effects of poverty-related risks (material hardship, early adversity) on child health and development over the life course, with a particular interest the cumulative vulnerabilities experienced by children with chronic health conditions and their families. Her research also aims to understand buffers at the family and community level that may offer protection in the setting of these risks, with the goal of informing meaningful, scalable interventions.

Monday, March 8, 2021 | Leong Centre Rounds with CHES: "Doing Research in Schools During the COVID-19 Pandemic"

Katarina Maximova's research focuses on solutions to improve the early life experiences, development, and well-being of children and youth experiencing poverty. Dr. Maximova played a major role in evaluating the impact of the APPLE Schools (A Project Promoting Healthy Living for Everyone in Schools) intervention program targeting physical activity, healthy eating, and mental health among more than 21,000 children and youth experiencing marginalization in Canada. She also spent several years with the Government of Canada working on policy issues focused on poverty in early life, ‘working poor’ families, income support for low-income families, family-friendly policies, affordable housing, and homelessness.

Monday February 1, 2021 | Leong Centre Rounds with CHES: "Understanding Son Preference, A Community-Based Participatory Action Research Project"

Susitha Wanigaratne, PhD, MHSc, BSc is a RESTRACOMP Research Fellow in CHES and at ICES. She is a social epidemiologist whose work examines immigration as a social determinant of maternal, infant and child health and is a co-author on the recent ICES report examining COVID-19 disparities among immigrants, refugees and other newcomers in Ontario.

Manvir Bhangu, MA, BA is a gender equity advocate, researcher and a community mobilizer. She has a BA in Human Rights & Human Diversity and Criminology from Wilfrid Laurier University and a Masters from McMaster University in Globalization and the Human Condition. Manvir is the Founder and Executive Director of Laadliyan, Celebrating & Empowering Daughters, a nonprofit organization that inspires South Asian daughters of all ages to become empowered individuals through education, engagement and awareness.

Pamela Uppal, MA, BA cares deeply about how women experience the world and so over the past 10 years she has focused on building gender equitable systems by bridging frontline work, research initiatives, and public policy advocacy activities. Pamela graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in women and gender studies and philosophy from the University of Toronto.

2020

Wednesday, December 2, 2020 | Paediatric Grand Rounds with the Leong Centre: "Evaluation the Canadian Child Benefit and Universal Child Care Benefit"

Mark Stabile is the Stone Chaired Professor of Wealth Inequality and Professor ofEconomics at INSEAD and Professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.At INSEAD he directs the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Centre for the Study of Wealth Inequality at INSEAD and is the Deputy Academic Director of the Hoffmann Institute for Business and Society. From 2007 to2015 he was the founding Director of the School of Public Policy and Governance at theUniversity of Toronto and Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the RotmanSchool of Management, University of Toronto. From 2003-2005 he was the Senior Policy Advisor to the Ontario Minister of Finance, where he worked on tax, health, andeducation policy. Dr. Stabile is the recipient of the Carolyn Tuohy award in Public Policy, the John Polanyi Prize in Economics, the Harry Johnson Prize from the Canadian Economics Association (twice) and Excellence in Teaching Awards from the Rotman School and INSEAD.Hisrecent work focuses on inequality, poverty, child health, health care financing, and taxpolicy. He has advised the Governments of the United States, Canada, and Ontario,among others, on health care reform and programs to reduce child poverty. He isassociate editor of the Journal of Health Economics. Professor Stabile received his Ph.D.from Columbia University and his BA from the University of Toronto.

Monday, October 19, 2020 | Leong Centre Rounds with CHES: "Leveraging an Equity-Lens to Characterize the Risks for COVID-19 Acquisition and Transmission and Optimal Intervention Strategies"

Dr. Stefan Baral, MD, MPH, MBA, MSc, FRCPC, CCFP is a physician epidemiologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Stefan completed his certification in Community Medicine as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and Family medicine with the Canadian Council of Family Physicians. Stefan provides clinical care in homeless shelters in Toronto through the Inner City Health Associates. Through his role as the Director of the Key Populations Program, Stefan has led HIV epidemiology and implementation research focused on characterizing the epidemiology of HIV and effective HIV prevention, treatment, and care approaches for gay men and other men who have sex with men, transgender women, and female sex workers across Western and Central, and Southern Africa. With the arrival of COVID-19 in Toronto, Stefan co-led the establishment of the first recovery and isolation site for homeless people in Toronto and has been providing in person care throughout in shelters. Stefan has published more than ten COVID-19 related papers as a member of research teams focused on characterizing heterogeneity in individual, network, and structural risks and developing strategies to address these risks.

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