Session 1: The Role of Culture on Autism Diagnosis and Treatment

Presenter: Angelina Kakooza-Mwesige, MB.Ch.B, MMed, PhD

About the session:

This session highlighted the current state of clinical care of autistic people and autism research objectives in non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) cultures. The webinar focused on the experiences of autistic people from countries that are often underrepresented in research.

About the presenter:

Dr. Angelina Kakooza Mwesige (MB.Ch.B, MMed, PhD), is a Senior Lecturer and Child neurologist in the Department of Paediatrics & Child Health at Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda. Her major research interests are in the fields of infectious diseases and neurodevelopmental disorders with special emphasis on Cerebral palsy, Autism, and Epilepsy with over 80 publications in these fields.

She is closely involved in training post and under graduate medical and paramedical students on neurological disorders in children and has over 20 years’ experience in medical practice in low resource settings. She was a previous recipient for a Fogarty/ NIH funded study on “Neuro Developmental Disabilities in Ugandan Children” and currently is a Co-PI on an epidemiological and interventional study on Cerebral palsy in Ugandan Children, funded by the Swedish Research council and also a Co-PI on a multisite collaborative pilot study of a mobile health application tool to assess multiple behavioral risk markers of Autism Spectrum Disorder among children in Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa.

She is the President of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE)- Africa region (2017-2021). She is a board member on the African Child Neurology Association; African Regional Committee of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO-ARC) and the Women in World Neuroscience (WWN), a branch of the International Brian Research Organization (IBRO).

She is a member of the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM). She has been instrumental in the founding of the East African Academy on Childhood Disability, where she is the current treasurer. She is a member of the Uganda National Academy of Sciences (UNAS) and has served as a committee member on two United States National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) evaluation committees.

Session 1 Materials PDF

Recorded on June 17, 2021