Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Accurately predicting the outcome of brain damage in infants is extremely important. These predictions influence complex and difficult decisions about potential treatment, in cases where the outcomes may be severe mental or physical disability and greatly reduced quality of life. Often, these predictions help parents make difficult end-of-life decisions. However, studies on physicians' predictions in adult brain damage have shown that physicians with different characteristics (e.g. age, specialty) often make very different predictions, even for patients with similar injuries and illnesses. This variability in outcome prediction has not been well studied for newborn patients. If physicians differ in their predictions for these patients, as they do with adult patients, this variability can confuse parents and complicate this already difficult decision-making process. Biomarkers, which are measures of the biological characteristics that can help physicians objectively predict outcomes, could help eliminate some of this uncertainty and variability. However, certain biomarker technologies are relatively new, so in order to understand the use of biomarkers we must first understand how physicians use new technology. In our study on neonatal and neurology specialists, we hope to identify the characteristics of physicians (such as specialty, age and religion) that are associated with their prediction of outcomes and we hope to identify how biomarkers are involved in their decision-making. This research will provide valuable knowledge that can be used to improve the care of brain-damaged infants.