Samantha Micsinszki is the training director of the CanChild Family Engagement and Research or FER program at McMaster, working alongside co-founders Dr. Andrea Cross, Connie Putterman, and Donna Thompson. She supports the implementation of a dynamic and innovative family engagement training program for researchers, people with lived experience, and their families in neurodevelopmental and child health research.
Dr. Karen Beattie is a researcher in pediatric rheumatology at McMaster. She's also the lead for patient and family engagement for our department, where she trains and mentors researchers and people with lived experiences in research partnerships, and fosters relationship building through brokering partnerships between researchers, clinicians, and family partners. She has co-facilitated the Department of Pediatrics' cohorts of the Family Engagement and Research course and continues to build a network of lived experience partners who are interested in partnering in research with faculty.
Dr. Andrea Cross is an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at McMaster and a scientist at CanChild. She's a co-founder of the Family Engagement and Research Program, a multifaceted training program that has trained over 700 people around the world in family engagement and research. She currently holds the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Patient-Oriented Research Transition to Leadership.
Dr. Elif Bilgic is an assistant professor and education scientist in the department, and the McMaster Health Education Research Innovation and Theory, or the Merit Center, and her research program is in the field of performance assessment across medical specialties. She specifically focuses on exploring how to optimize assessment in clinical and simulation settings, focusing on technology, innovation, and collaboration, ensuring that trainees are gaining the necessary skills to provide the best patient care possible.
In this week's core session of Grand Rounds, they will explore what meaningful patient and family engagement entails, review the current state of engagement in health research and education, and highlight challenges along with practical tools and resources to support and strengthen engagement.