Dr. Tim Oberlander is a Developmental Pediatrician physician-scientist whose work bridges developmental neurosciences and community child health. As a clinician he works with the Complex Pain Service at BC Children’s Hospital and the Sunny Hill Acute Rehab Unit, and has a particular interest in managing pain in children with developmental disabilities. As a researcher his work uses cohort and population-level data to answer pressing questions in three areas: 1) pain in children with developmental disabilities (CP, autism); 2) studies of the early origins of somatic and emotion regulation in children in the context of prenatal maternal mental illness and antidepressant treatment and 3) development of a research platform for in-home data collection of multi-modal, micro-longitudinal real-world data (Living Lab at Home “LLAH”).
His work seeks to understand how early life experiences shape stress and pain reactivity during childhood and contribute to pathways that shape the early origins of self-regulation. His work provides strong evidence that such exposures influence child behavior in ways that reflect a remarkable capacity for plasticity and demonstrate that even in the face of adversity, some children do very well. Oberlander’s work is driven by curiosity to understand how and why this happens, and a determination to identify modifiable factors that can improve developmental health.
Along with Dr. K. Boerner, he has co-led the LLAH at BC Children’s Hospital which aims to co-design, with patients and families from across the developmental spectrum and provide accessible, patient-informed, validated methods to collect daily emotional data and related symptoms and experiences (e.g., physical activity, stress, mental health, social interactions). This platform offers an invaluable approach to understanding complex phenomenon, like chronic pain, its inherent evanescent nature and influences of contextual factors. Oberlander’s work has contributed to clinical practice and research, raising critical questions about what we know and seeking ways to manage pain in often-ignored vulnerable populations of children.