McMaster pediatrician awarded honorary degree

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[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/rosenbaum_peter.jpe” caption=”Peter Rosenbaum”]

Peter Rosenbaum, a professor in the Department of Pediatrics, works to make the latest research and newest ideas about childhood disability available and accessible. His work helps parents ensure that their children have access to new treatments or discoveries about the causes of childhood disabilities.

Rosenbaum was awarded an honorary degree this week by Laval University in recognition of his contributions to the health of children with cerebral palsy.

When a parent is told that their child has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, one of the first questions is often “How bad is it?” That's closely followed by “Will my child ever walk?”

Thanks to Peter Rosenbaum, healthcare professionals can now answer those questions with greater certainty. That's because Rosenbaum has developed a test called the Gross Motor Function Classification System, which describes the severity of cerebral palsy in ways families and service providers can understand. It is now being used in more than 20 countries around the world.

The Canada Research Chair in Childhood Disability Research, Dr. Rosenbaum is also co-director of the CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research. This centre for childhood disability research seeks to maximize the life quality of children and youth with disabilities and their families.

Along with conducting research on children with disabilities and their parents, Rosenbaum writes parent-friendly reports on the results of each research study, as well as short summaries of current literature and ideas. The reports and summaries are posted on the CanChild Web page and published as a column in a leading journal about childhood disability. The results of all of these activities are improvements in the quality of life for both parents and children with cerebral palsy and similar disabilities.