ABCD Research was at CNOC 2022!

Last week, members of the ABCD research lab attended the 11th annual Scientific Sessions of the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcome Collaborative (CNOC) in Montreal! This international meeting brings together clinicians, researchers, and parent partners from around the world and aims to optimize neurodevelopmental outcomes in children with pediatric and congenital heart disease.

The conference featured presentations from lab director Dr. Marie Brossard-Racine and recent PhD graduate Dr. Marie-Eve Bolduc. Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Sarah Palmis, PhD candidate Kaitlyn Easson, and MSc candidate Fatima Abboud shared their research in poster presentations.

Lab director Dr. Marie Brossard-Racine delivered a presentation entitled “Long-Lasting Structural Brain Alterations Associated with Psychosocial Functioning in Youth with CHD”.

Lab alumna and recent PhD graduate Dr. Marie-Eve Bolduc delivered a presentation entitled “We Can Do Better: Possible Solutions to Optimize Developmental Follow-Up for Children and Adolescents with CHD in Canada”.

Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Sarah Palmis shared a poster entitled “Characterizing cerebellar growth in infants born with a congenital heart defect during the first year of life”.

PhD candidate Kaitlyn Easson presented a poster entitled “White Matter Microstructure and Self-Reported Neuropsychological Functioning in Youth Born with Congenital Heart Disease”.

MSc candidate Fatima Abboud shared a poster entitled “Psychosocial Outcomes of Emerging Adults with Congenital Heart Defect”.

ABCD Research was at the 2022 FIT'NG Meeting

In September 2022, the ABCD research laboratory participated in the first edition of the Fetal, Infant and Toddler Neuro-Imaging Group (FIT'NG) conference in Paris, France

This international conference brought together researchers from diverse backgrounds (psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, physics, engineering, computer science) whose goal is to advance the understanding of early neurodevelopmental processes.

Sarah Palmis, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab, was selected to present a poster entitled "Characterizing cerebellar growth during the first year of life following a preterm birth".

New environmental scan of the Canadian developmental follow-up practices for children with a CHD

We are happy to share our new publication on current developmental follow-up practices in Canada https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjcpc.2021.11.002. In this paper, we demonstrated that only a subset of Canadian children with a complex congenital heart defect has access to a formal developmental program that can optimally identify delays. These practices are considered suboptimal from the point of view of the majority of the health care professionals we interviewed and may lead to the under-detection of developmental difficulties in this population.