Nancy Young

Dr. Young is a Senior Scientist at the CHEO Research Institute and specializes in child health measurement science. She is also a Senior Scientist at IC/ES. She completed her MSc in Clinical Epidemiology and PhD in Medical Science at the University of Toronto and began her career as a Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children. Over the past 25 years, she has elevated the voices of children in healthcare and research. She has worked with many different populations, including children with chronic complex disabilities and those with bleeding disorders.

Dr. Young and team merge scientific methods, children’s perspectives, and cultural wisdom to generate innovative methods to measure quality of life among children to give voice to hidden populations. These groups include children with rare disorders around the world. She is also actively creating culturally relevant approaches to health measurement with and for First Nations, Inuit and Métis children and youth.  These tools are shared openly with community leaders to support children’s participation in health assessment.

She collaborates with many Indigenous health leaders to meet the needs of children in rural and remote communities. Through collaboration, she has been able to improve access to high-quality local data that informs health services planning within Indigenous communities. Her research also helps Indigenous children have honest and strengths-based conversations about wellness in clinical settings. Finally, her ACHWM team is actively creating and sharing culturally relevant and accessible resources to promote wellness among Indigenous children and youth.

Dr. Young’s research program is funded by grants from CIHR (a Pathways Component 3 Team Grant), the Cundill Foundation, AMS Health Services, Health Canada, and the Ministry of Children Community and Social Services in Ontario.