Integrating tailored approaches in perioperative care strategies for neurodivergent individuals

Geraldine Dawson is the William Cleland Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University, where she also is a Professor of Pediatrics and Psychology & Neuroscience.  Dawson also is the Founding Director of the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development, an NIH Autism Center of Excellence, which is an interdisciplinary research program and clinic, aimed to improve the lives of those diagnosed with autism through research, education, clinical services, and policy. Dawson received a Ph.D. in Developmental and Child Clinical Psychology from the University of Washington and completed a clinical internship at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute.

Dawson's work focuses on improving methods for early detection and intervention for autism, understanding brain function in autism, and validation of autism EEG biomarkers. She co-developed the Early Start Denver Model, an empirically-validated early autism intervention that is used worldwide. She collaborates with colleagues in the departments of computer science and engineering, pediatrics, and biostatistics to develop novel digital health approaches to autism screening and outcome monitoring. 

Dawson previously served as Director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, President of the International Society for Autism Research, and was appointed by the US Secretary of Health as a member of the NIH Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) which develops the federal strategic plan for autism research, services, and policy. Dawson is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was Founding Director of the University of Washington (UW) Autism Center and the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development. Dawson's awards include the American Psychological Association Distinguished Career Award (Div53); Association for Psychological Science Lifetime Achievement Award; Clarivate Top 1% Cited Researcher Across All Scientific Fields; among others. Dawson is a Fellow of the International Society for Autism Research, the American Psychological Society, and the American Psychological Association. 

Through my clinical expertise as a pediatric anesthesiologist and pain specialist, I am reminded every day of the challenges our pediatric patients and their families experience when undergoing a surgical procedure. Acute pain management in pediatrics is associated with numerous age-specific complexities, and unfortunately, many interventions that are easily accessible in adults remain out of reach for children due to lack of clinical knowledge and missing pharmacologic data. My research is focused on developing and analyzing innovative approaches to improve functional outcomes after pediatric surgery through interventional and observational clinical trials. As a physician-scientist, my goal is to advance our understanding of existing and novel analgesics to provide safe, effective, and personalized perioperative pain management in children and adolescents.

My overall goal is to elucidate mechanisms of and risk factors for perioperative acute kidney injury in patients undergoing heart surgery with emphasis the role of early recovery of kidney function. A special area of interest is the phenomenon of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction. We have successfully developed an algorithm to help simplify the detection of diastolic dysfunction using echocardiography during heart surgery. A future goal is to explore interventions that help prevent or reduce the severity of diastolic dysfunction postoperatively.