Research

Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome in Children

The autonomic nervous system dynamically responds to changes around and within us. From temperature changes to changes in position, it is constantly adjusting blood pressure, heart rate, the size of our pupils, and whether we sweat or not - to name just a few. The autonomic nervous system touches all aspects of our body and so can be very difficult to understand when things go wrong.

Sometimes the system becomes dysregulated and this is one way to understand Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome or POTS. In this condition, a person's heart rate increases dramatically when they are standing and they often feel lightheaded or unsteady. When this happens for weeks and months, they often begin to feel fatigued and develop other symptoms like headaches. It can be a very difficult disorder to live with and is often misunderstood by others. How could so many things go wrong all at the same time? That is what happens when the autonomic nervous system becomes dysregulated in POTS.

My research interests focus on better understanding POTS using traditional measures of autonomic reflexes like heart rate and blood pressure response to changes in position. I also use advanced MRI techniques to study brain blood flow in POTS. My overall aim is to better understand the underlying mechanisms in POTS. I am also very interested in developing better treatment strategies for POTS - including digital health interventions.

Real-World Evidence and Digital Health

The digitizing of our world and health systems have opened opportunities to use data and digital devices in ways that were not previously possible. For example, can routinely collected health data also be used to understand how treatments are working in real life - not just under the ideal conditions of a clinical trial. I work with a team of data analysts to make sense of the data we have available today and the data we will have available tomorrow - also known as Real-World Evidence (RWE).

Digital health is a broad new area that includes data-enabled innovation as well as digital devices that help patients with their health conditions. Digital health is expected to be an increasingly important area in health innovation, but evidence will need to be provided to support the use of these technologies. My interests are in working with innovators and applying what I know about RWE or clinical trials to help bring these innovations to patients.