Renée El-Gabalawy, MA, PhD, C.Psych, Director
Health, Anxiety and Trauma Lab, 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.