The Ed Hornick Memorial Lecture – “Seeing the Lion: Global Developmental Epidemiology in a Digital Age” with Helen Link Egger, MD

Helen Egger, MD, a child psychiatrist, developmental epidemiologist and early childhood mental health researcher, will present a talk called “Seeing the Lion: Global Developmental Epidemiology in a Digital Age.” Based on her longitudinal, community studies of preschoolers and recent ResearchKit app Autism & Beyond, Dr. Egger will address these questions: When should we worry about the behaviors and emotions of toddlers and preschoolers? How do we distinguish between normative development and clinically-significant mental health and developmental challenges? How common are mental health and developmental disorders in early childhood? Can smart-phone apps for the “computers in our pockets” and data science methods including computer vision and machine learning enable us provide evidence-based knowledge and advice to parents of young children around the world? Dr. Egger will conclude with a vision for global early childhood mental health research and practice to transform the lives of young children in our local communities and communities around the world.

Helen Link Egger, MD is the Chair, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Director of the Child Study Center at NYU Langone Medical Center. Dr. Egger is known for her seminal work in preschool mental health and developmental epidemiology. Prior to joining NYU Langone, Dr. Egger was the Chief of the Division of Child and Family Mental Health and Developmental Neuroscience and Vice Chair for Integrated Pediatric Mental Health in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Egger also held secondary appointments in the Departments of Pediatrics and Psychology and Neurosciences.

Among her many contributions to the field of childhood mental health, Dr. Egger is recognized for creating the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment, the first comprehensive, parent-report diagnostic interviewing tool for assessing the mental health of preschool-age children-internationally recognized as the gold standard for psychiatric assessment of this age group. In her role as a research scientist, she has worked on the developmental epidemiology and neuroscience of anxiety and mood disorders in children ages two to five. Her research uses brain imaging to examine dysfunctions of the neural circuitry in children with early onset anxiety disorders.

After co-founding and co-leading the Duke Initiative on Information and Child Mental Health, Dr. Egger’s research expanded into the realm of digital health, data science, and global mental health. She has created innovative tools to gather and analyze information about a child’s behaviors, emotions, and development using computer vision and machine learning. Dr. Egger and her team’s work was featured in the March 2016 Apple Keynote.

Dr. Egger received her MD from Yale University School of Medicine and her post-doctoral work at Duke University Medical Center.   She is a board member of Zero to Three, a national non-profit organization focusing on improving the health and development of infants, toddlers and their families.