Dr. Melanie Penner is a Developmental Paediatrician and senior clinician scientist at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, where she holds the Bloorview Children's Hospital Foundation Chair in Developmental Paediatrics. She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto and cross appointed to the Institute of Medical Sciences and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. She obtained her Bachelor's degree in Health Sciences at McMaster University, followed by her Medical degree at Queen's University. She did her paediatric residency and subspecialty developmental paediatrics training at the University of Toronto, followed by a Master's of Science in Health Services Research. As a clinician scientist, Dr. Penner's clinical and research interests are in autism. In particular, she is interested in service delivery for this population, including evaluating the impact of new care models. Dr. Penner has done research and educational work to expand Ontario's diagnostic capacity for Autism diagnoses in the community setting, decreasing wait times and facilitating earlier access to essential therapy programs.
In this week's core session of Grand Rounds, she presents her research on the role of community-based health professionals in autism diagnosis and ongoing care, including efforts to expand capacity through Project ECHO Ontario Autism.