Dr. Darcy Fehlings receives the Lifetime Achievement award from the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine at the academy's award ceremony on October 24th in Quebec City.
As a senior clinician scientist who leads the Cerebral Palsy Discovery Lab at Holland Bloorview Rehabilitation Hospital's Bloorview Research Institute (BRI), Dr. Darcy Fehlings has devoted her clinical and research work to enabling personalized versions of a good life across the lifespan for children and youth living with cerebral palsy (CP). Dr. Fehlings is also a developmental pediatrician at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital and professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto. Dr. Fehlings' work focuses on the innovation and evaluation of interventions for children with CP including hypertonia interventions, early detection, constraint therapy, dystonia and pain management.
Highlights of her key research and academic achievements include:
contributing to the neuroscience of childhood-onset disabilities, particularly through leadership roles in translational neuroscience networks such as CP-NET;
publishing ground-breaking research on the genomics of CP and studying the underlying mechanisms of rehabilitation and developmental interventions;
linking research and important clinical issues to drive changes in clinical practice (i.e., importance of identifying and managing pain in children with neurodevelopmental disabilities as well as dystonia in CP);
driving change in evidence-informed clinical practices for childhood-onset disabilities through knowledge mobilization activities; and
supporting the 'future' of evidence-informed care for childhood-onset disabilities such as training graduate students and developmental paediatric fellows in scholarly activities focused on childhood-onset disabilities.
Dr. Fehlings has held prestigious positions as the inaugural head of the University of Toronto's Division of Developmental Paediatrics and as chair of the Royal College Specialty Committee in Developmental Pediatrics. Over the past decade, she has been recognized as one of the top global experts in cerebral palsy by Expertscape, an online database that ranks medical professionals.
As a testament to the ground-breaking advances and contributions to the field of cerebral palsy, in 2024, Dr. Fehlings was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM).
Dr. Fehlings talks more about her research in the interview below.
What are the latest advances in cerebral palsy research that you're seeing in your field?
I see three streams of research that are having impact. The first is a focus on evaluating strength-based interventions such as encouraging 'fun' participation in the community and promoting physical fitness (i.e. Interactive Computer Play Exergame Recumbent Bike).
The second is research activities that fall under the umbrella of translational neuroscience such as understanding the underlying neural mechanisms of action of our rehabilitation interventions. These include constraint therapy or understanding the genetic underpinnings to etiologic risk of CP.
The third is knowledge implementation science activities to drive change in early detection and early intervention for cerebral palsy.
What is one of your proudest achievements in your storied career?
I believe that receiving the lifetime achievement award from the AACPDM tops my list. I strongly believe in team science and would like to acknowledge all of the team players who contributed to moving the bar in research with me to positively impact children with cerebral palsy and their families.
What is your hope for the future for children and youth living with CP and their families?
From a research perspective, my hope is to move boldly forward in partnership with individuals with CP and their families to innovate, evaluate and promote 'positively disruptive' interventions that will make a positive difference in the well-being of children with CP and their families.
Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital has ranked among Canada's top 40 research hospitals for more than a decade, consistently placing among the top three small-tier research hospitals for researcher and hospital intensity in the past six years.