Andrew Mackie Seeking seamless healthcare transitions
Medical advances have increased survival rates for many childhood conditions, resulting in more children surviving to adulthood and requiring lifelong specialty healthcare. Andrew Mackie is working to help prepare adolescents for the move from pediatric to adult care, and minimize medical complications during this transition.
Mackie is a professor in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and a cardiologist at the Stollery Children’s Hospital. He studies challenges facing adolescent patients transitioning to adult healthcare, including lack of trust of new providers, difficulties for teenagers learning to manage their own illnesses and parental struggles with ‘letting go.’ These issues can result in care gaps and negative health outcomes.
With his Distinguished Researcher funding, he is focusing his research on understudied groups: teens with developmental delays, marginalized teens and adolescents with complex needs.