University of Ottawa Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics
Medical Co-Lead of steering committee, CHEO Integrated Treatment Centre
Co-Lead, Technology Enabling Kids (TEK) Research Group
Dr. Anna McCormick is the division chief and medical director of the department of pediatric rehabilitation at The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), Medical Co-Lead of the steering committee for the new CHEO Integrated Treatment Centre, a rehabilitation consultant at The Ottawa Rehabilitation Centre, and Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa. Dr. McCormick is one of only 4 individuals in Canada to be dual Royal College certified in Pediatrics and Rehabilitation Medicine.
As co-lead of the Technology Enabling Kids (TEK) lab at CHEO, Dr. McCormick has a special interest in use of technology in pediatric rehabilitation including; Robot assisted gait training, virtual reality facilitated exercise, brain to computer interface, and artificial intelligence for gait assessment and communication challenges. She has been involved in over 30 interprofessional research projects and more than 140 invited and peer-reviewed presentations with subjects including treatment of hypertonicity in cerebral palsy, transition of young adults to adult care, development of an evidence-based review of acquired brain injury and database development to enable research including the Integrated Neuroscience Discovery Network (CP-Net) and The Canadian Neuromuscular Data Registry (CNDR).
Dr. McCormick is the CHEO RI Research Mentorship Vice-Chair and has provided education and mentorship for hundreds of learners from medical students to new medical staff, early career researchers and graduate students. She has developed a dual entry fellowship program in Pediatric Rehabilitation and has thoroughly enjoyed watching graduates flourish in clinical practice and have academic success locally, provincially, nationally and internationally. In 2018 she received the Department of Pediatrics Recognition Award for Research Mentorship.
Finally, Dr. McCormick is also proud to provide provincial and international academic leadership as an executive member of the Cerebral Palsy Integrated Neuroscience Network (CP-Net) and a board member of the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine where she served as scientific Co-Chair of the Diamond Anniversary meeting.
Research Projects
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Impacting the physical activity confidence of children with medical conditions or disabilities: A randomized controlled trial
27/03/2025
Youth with medical conditions or disabilities (MCD) seldom achieve healthy physical activity recommendations. Barriers include a perceived lack of competence, fear of pain/symptom exacerbation, or physical function changes. A 12-week intervention targeting physical activity confidence was evaluated among youth with MCD. The study found that youth who were confident were more likely to engage in physical activity. The in-person intervention increased participants’ activity confidence. The limited impact of the virtual format suggests that implementing new skills with peers is critically important for enhancing activity confidence. Further research is required to evaluate whether confidence gains could be sustained beyond the study intervention, would longitudinally increase activity participation over time, or would transfer to other activity settings.
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A randomized, cross-over trial comparing the effect of innovative robotic gait training and functional clinical therapy in children with cerebral palsy; a protocol to test feasibility
17/01/2023