Monika Novak Pavlic

Dr. Monika Novak Pavlic is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Bloorview Research Institute at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital and CanChild Centre for Childhood-Onset Disability Research at McMaster University. With a background in Rehabilitation Science and Physiotherapy, her research focuses on different aspects of pediatric rehabilitation, such as psychosocial aspects of care, family well-being, family-centred service, engagement in service delivery and cultural safety in healthcare. Her work sits at the intersection of health services, social determinants of health and cultural influences in service delivery.  

She employs a wide range of research methodologies, including program evaluation, feasibility studies, systematic/scoping reviews and mixed-methods designs. Her work also draws on community- and needs-based participatory research, knowledge translation and patient-oriented research, emphasizing lived experience and co-production. Dr. Novak Pavlic’s studies involve diverse populations, including children, youth, families and health professionals, with the overarching goal of enhancing the quality, equity, and effectiveness of rehabilitation and family-centred care services.

Dr. Novak Pavlic currently leads two programs of research. She holds a three-year Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Post-Doctoral Fellowship to explore child engagement in therapy using the Pediatric Rehabilitation Intervention Measure of Engagement for Children (PRIME-C). This program of research is done in partnership between youth with developmental disabilities, clinicians and researchers from four leading children’s centres in Ontario: Holland Bloorview, Kids Ability Centre for Child Development, Grandview Kids and Thames Valley Children’s Centre (TVCC). Additionally, following the successful language translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the parent support ‘ENabling Visions And Growing ExpectationsFamilies’ (ENVISAGE) program in Croatia and preliminary feasibility pilot testing (2019-2022), Dr. Novak Pavlic, together with her team of parent partners and service providers, continues to lead the three-year research implementation project in partnership with the Special Hospital for Protection of Children with Neurodevelopmental and Motor Disabilities Goljak, funded by the City of Zagreb.

Dr. Novak Pavlic teaches in the Master of Health Management in the School of Rehabilitation Science and serves as a Faculty Advisor in the Physiotherapy program at McMaster University.