Eileen Crehan, PhD

Dr. Eileen Crehan is a clinical scientist whose research centers on social impairments and social functioning of adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Her work employs eye-tracking and psychophysiological monitoring systems to capture the nuances of social perception and response. She has applied these approaches to better understand social cognition in ASD, as well as to examine how social communication and perspective-taking impact gaze behavior, emotion perception, and physiological arousal transdiagnostically.

In addition to perception, Dr. Crehan is interested in developing programming related to sexuality and relationship formation for autistic individuals. She seeks to address content limitations and accessibility challenges in current sexuality education programs. Her work aims to improve the rigor of sex education research by integrating clinical trial and implementation research methodologies. The goal is to develop educational programming that addresses critical issues such as sexuality, pursuing and maintaining relationships, and physical and emotional safety. The role of self-advocates and family advocates in the design and implementation of her research is very important to her.

Institution: Tufts University

Project Title: Increasing capacity in primary care and OB/GYN care: Exploring how we prepare providers to best care for autistic adults

Project Overview: The project aims to improve health care access for autistic adults by developing provider training tools. This includes a co-created didactic and an augmented reality patient simulation tool, enhancing provider capacity to better serve autistic patients. The project evaluates providers' knowledge and attitudes pre and post-training, also gathering feedback from autistic adults on their health care experiences. The ultimate goal is to create tools for future clinical trials to improve health care experiences for autistic adults.