SUMMARY
The research of Cat Chong, Ph.D., focuses on understanding the neuropathological and clinical factors that characterize migraine, post-traumatic headache following mild traumatic brain injury and other chronic pain conditions. Dr. Chong integrates advanced brain imaging with patient-reported symptoms, clinical measures, speech analysis, electronic health record data and machine learning methods to identify meaningful markers of disease and recovery.
A central goal of Dr. Chong's research is to determine why some people improve while others develop persistent symptoms. Dr. Chong seeks to translate these findings into tools that support more-accurate prognoses.
Focus areas
- Shared and distinct neural signatures of migraine and post-traumatic headache. Dr. Chong uses multimodal neuroimaging, including structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, and resting-state and task-based functional MRI to investigate alterations in brain structure and function across headache disorders. By identifying neural signatures that are shared among disorders and those that are unique to each condition, this research aims to discover brain-based biomarkers that improve disease characterization.
- Predicting post-traumatic headache persistence and recovery. Dr. Chong collects prospective longitudinal data from people with post-traumatic headache following mild traumatic brain injury. By integrating neuroimaging, clinical data, headache diaries and speech metrics, this research aims to identify early biomarkers of recovery and predict which people are at risk of developing persistent post-traumatic headache.
- Multimodal prediction of pain outcomes. Dr. Chong's collaborative team develops deep learning and machine learning models that combine electronic health record data with brain imaging and behavioral and patient-reported information. The goal is to predict individual pain recovery trajectories and create tools that can support earlier and more-personalized care.
- Migraine-related cardiovascular and cerebrovascular risk. Dr. Chong investigates how migraine characteristics, demographic factors, comorbidities and imaging findings contribute to the risk of stroke and other major cardiovascular events. Predictive models are designed to improve risk stratification and prevention strategies.
Significance to patient care
Dr. Chong's work connects brain imaging, clinical research and data science. She seeks to create more-personalized care and improve long-term health for people with headache and pain disorders.