Overview

My current research interests focus on exploring what it means to be a community provider and a researcher. As a general pediatrician, holding positions in both developmental pediatrics and psychiatry I see mostly children with complex behavioural phenotypes. As a community based pediatrician, work is based away from institutional supports and this has lead to my current research interest. Community providers have expertise grounded in daily micro-experiments but traditional research forums do not allow for our ‘naturalistic’ methodologies – this results in a major lack in ability to share this knowledge. As a community provider I seek to understand the interplay between colonialism and our academic institutions and how to decentralize knowledge. I am more than a “Knowledge User” as my understanding of etiology and pathology is grounded in what I learn from patient interactions, not by researchers.

The population of patients I work with includes those impacted by profound autism and associated behaviours – this includes a focus on Self-Injurious Behaviours (SIB). I am working towards establishing an understanding of SIB in terms of impact on individual, family and society. This patient population experiences extreme marginalization and massive health inequities by virtue of a behaviour. I am currently looking towards understanding SIB, by creating a shared definition, including what severity means (is 1 time eye gouging once per week more severe the 100 hits from hand to head a day?). I am hoping to develop a national registry and establish Canada as the go to in SIB.

My work is informed by the varied hats I wear – run a clinic in Vancouver (Groundwork Medical Clinic), do outreach to Bella Coola, Powell River and Fort St John as a community pediatrician, complete autism assessments as I can and with pilot projects, do local outreach through Social Pediatrics to Lu’ma Medical Clinic and an undocumented Latin migrant clinic. It is further shaped by being a white appearing Latina – all the privilege but none of the racism yet guided by what my mom experienced.

Publications

Characteristics of children with autism and unspecified intellectual developmental disorder (intellectual disability) presenting with severe self-injurious behaviours
International Journal of Developmental Disabilities
Fong, A. and Friedlander, R. and Richardson, A. and Allen, K. and Zhang, Q.
DOI: 10.1080/20473869.2022.2113321
2024

Parental experiences in the use of fluoxetine for management of ‘disruptive behaviours’ in children and youth with autism and pathological demand avoidance – a mixed methods exploratory study (Fluoxetine study)
Research Square
Lim, R. and Yip, J. and Richardson, A.
DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4079890/v1
2024

An HNRNPK-specific DNA methylation signature makes sense of missense variants and expands the phenotypic spectrum of Au-Kline syndrome
American Journal of Human Genetics
Choufani, S. and McNiven, V. and Cytrynbaum, C. and Jangjoo, M. and Adam, M.P. and Bjornsson, H.T. and Harris, J. and Dyment, D.A. and Graham, G.E. and Nezarati, M.M. and Aul, R.B. and Castiglioni, C. and Breckpot, J. and Devriendt, K. and Stewart, H. and Banos-Pinero, B. and Mehta, S. and Sandford, R. and Dunn, C. and Mathevet, R. and van Maldergem, L. and Piard, J. and Brischoux-Boucher, E. and Vitobello, A. and Faivre, L. and Bournez, M. and Tran-Mau, F. and Maystadt, I. and Fern{\'a}ndez-Ja{\'e}n, A. and Alvarez, S. and Garc{\'i}a-Prieto, I.D. and Alkuraya, F.S. and Alsaif, H.S. and Rahbeeni, Z. and El-Akouri, K. and Al-Mureikhi, M. and Spillmann, R.C. and Shashi, V. and Sanchez-Lara, P.A. and Graham, J.M. and Roberts, A. and Chorin, O. and Evrony, G.D. and Kraatari-Tiri, M. and Dudding-Byth, T. and Richardson, A. and Hunt, D. and Hamilton, L. and Dyack, S. and Mendelsohn, B.A. and Rodr{\'i}guez, N. and S{\'a}nchez-Mart{\'i}nez, R. and Tenorio-Casta{\~n}o, J. and Nevado, J. and Lapunzina, P. and Tirado, P. and Carminho Amaro Rodrigues, M.-T. and Quteineh, L. and Innes, A.M. and Kline, A.D. and Au, P.Y.B. and Weksberg, R.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2022.08.014
2022

Biased data lead to biased algorithms
CMAJ. Canadian Medical Association Journal
Richardson, A.
DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.80860
2022

Do light truck vehicles (LTV) impose greater risk of pedestrian injury than passenger cars? a meta-analysis and systematic review
Traffic Injury Prevention
Desapriya, E. and Subzwari, S. and Sasges, D. and Basic, A. and Alidina, A. and Turcotte, K. and Pike, I.
DOI: 10.1080/15389580903390623
2010

Deterrent to healthy lifestyles in our communities [13]
Pediatrics
Desapriya, E.B.R. and Pike, I. and Basic, A. and Subzwari, S.
DOI: 10.1542/peds.2007-0370
2007

Research

Graphics and Knowledge Creation
Working with a population of people who largely express themselves without spoken language, I have started to wonder about alternative communication devices for medical research, and for learning. I have moved away from utilizing graphics as an afterthought through KT, but looking at what graphics can teach, where new ways of knowing can be found.

https://pop-culture.arts.ubc.ca/comics-studies/csc-projects/eua-graphic…

Self-Injurious Behaviours
Self-injurious behaviours (SIB) have laid the foundation for my understanding of actionable equity. Medicine gets lost in diagnoses, and SIB is transdiagnostic. Management of SIB requires practitioners to be uncomfortable. As residents we are not taught discomfort – hesitation and pause are considered a fault, as opposed to a manner in which one processes best outcomes when there are no ‘best practice guidelines’.

Currently establishing an epidemiological snapshot of SIB in Canada with a CPSP Survey, developing a process for transdisciplinary assessment and intervention through development of a clinic, working towards establishing a National Registry for Self-Injurious Behaviours, and developing clinical practice guidelines.

Honours & Awards

Wall Scholar, 2021-2022

Family Support Institute “Champion of Diversity, Equity & Social Justice” 2025

Research Group Members

Jolie Penstock, Research Assistant
Setareh Setayesh, Volunteer Research Assistant