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Renée El-Gabalawy
University of Manitoba

Dr. El-Gabalawy is a Clinical Psychologist and Associate Professor who is cross-appointed in the Departments of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine and Clinical Health Psychology at the University of Manitoba. She completed her Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Manitoba, a research fellowship at Yale University, and her Clinical Psychology residency at the Medical University of South Carolina. She holds several administrative positions including the Director of Research and co-Director of Health Psychology Services in the Department of Clinical Health Psychology at the University of Manitoba. She is also the external advisory chair for the Center for Perioperative Mental Health out of Washington University. She has research and clinical expertise in perioperative mental health and is internationally recognized in this area. Dr. El-Gabalawy has over 130 peer-reviewed publications (H-index=39), numerous books chapters and has obtained millions of dollars of funding as co- or principal investigator locally and nationally. Her early research success has resulted in several early career awards including the Falconer Emerging Researcher Award and the Aubie Angel Young Investigator Award in Clinical Research. She is on the Editorial Board of General Hospital Psychiatry and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Medical Extended Reality.
 
As director of the multidisciplinary Health, Anxiety, and Trauma Lab (HATLab), Dr. El-Gabalawy and her team have developed and evaluated virtual reality patient interventions across the perioperative setting using feasibility, clinical trial, and qualitative designs. For example, her team has developed novel virtual reality programs that aim to (1) support preoperative anxiety for oncological surgical patients and (2) postoperative phantom limb pain following lower limb amputations. She has also evaluated the utility of intraoperative virtual reality for awake procedures under local anesthetics.