Rebecca McNally Keehn, PhD

Bio

Dr. McNally is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine. She is the Director of Research for the Division of Developmental Medicine and the Director of Research and Evaluation for the Indiana Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) program. Dr. McNally is also Co-Director of Indiana’s Early Autism Evaluation (EAE) Hub System (https://medicine.iu.edu/expertise/indiana-health/access-to-care/autism/care), a statewide network of community primary care clinicians trained to provide streamlined diagnostic evaluations for young children, ages 14-48 months, at increased likelihood for autism. The overall objective of Dr. McNally’s research is to develop and evaluate innovative service models that improve equitable access to care for autistic children from minoritized and resource-constrained communities in the US and globally (https://medicine.iu.edu/expertise/indiana-health/access-to-care/autism/research). In line with this goal, her research has focused on advancing models of care coordination, building capacity of primary care clinicians to deliver community-based autism evaluations, deployment of telehealth for autism diagnosis, and building autism health service capacity in global resource-constrained settings, including Kenya. A secondary focus of Dr. McNally’s work is engagement in team science that aims to elucidate etiological mechanisms of autism; her role across diverse projects has been to lead diagnostic phenotyping and translation of outcomes for clinical impact. Dr. McNally’s work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, Indiana Department of Health, Riley Children’s Foundation.

Key Publications

Dr. McNally’s complete list of publications can be accessed here:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/rebecca.mcnally%20keehn.1/bibliography/public/

 Key publications include:

 1.    Advancing access to early autism diagnosis through training primary care clinicians 

McNally Keehn, R., Swigonski, N., Enneking, B., Ryan, T, Monahan, P., Martin, A.M., Hamrick, L., Kadlaskar, G., Paxton, A., Ciccarelli, M., Keehn, B. Diagnostic accuracy of primary care clinicians across a statewide system of autism evaluation. Pediatrics, 152(2), e2023061188. PMID: 37461867. 

Martin, AM., Ciccarelli, M.R., Swigonski, N. & McNally Keehn, R. (2023). Brief Report: Evaluation of race and ethnicity across a statewide system of early autism evaluation. Journal of Pediatrics, 254, 96-101.

McNally Keehn, R., Tang, Q., Swigonski, N. & Ciccarelli, M. (2021). Associations among referral concerns, screening results, and diagnostic outcomes of young children assessed in a statewide early autism evaluation network. Journal of Pediatrics, 233, 74–81. PMID: 33662343. 

McNally Keehn, R., Ciccarelli, M., Szczepaniak, D., Tomlin, A., Lock, T., & Swigonski, N. (2020). A statewide tiered system for screening and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Pediatrics, 146(2), e20193876. PMID: 32632023. 

2.    Evidence-based care coordination for children with autism and neurodevelopmental disabilities 

Klein B, Ramaker M, Fitterling C, James C, Rouse M, Fauntleroy-Love KD, McNally Keehn R, & Enneking B. (in press). Engagement and satisfaction with care navigation support following telehealth autism evaluation. Journal of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics. 

McNally Keehn, R., Enneking, B., Ramaker, M., Goings, M., Yang, Z., Carroll, A., & Ciccarelli, M. (2020). Family-centered care coordination in an interdisciplinary neurodevelopmental evaluation clinic: Outcomes from coordinator and caregiver reports. Frontiers in Pediatrics, 8, 538633. PMID: 33194884; PMCID: PMC7661956. 

McAllister, J. W., McNally Keehn, R., Rodgers, R., & Lock, T. M. (2018). Care coordination using a shared plan of care approach: From model to practice. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 43, 88-96. PMID: 30473161. 

McAllister, J.W., McNally Keehn, R., Rodgers, R. Mpofu, P. B., Monahan, P. O., & Lock, T.M. (2018). Effects of a care coordination intervention with children with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 39(6), 471-480. PMID: 29672338. 

3.    Telehealth models of autism diagnosis deployed during COVID-19 

McNally Keehn, R., Enneking, B., Ryan, T., James, C., Tang, Q., Blewitt, A., Tomlin, A., Corona, L., & Wagner., L. (2023). Tele-assessment of young children referred for autism spectrum disorder evaluation during COVID-19: Associations among clinical characteristics and diagnostic outcome. Autism, 27(5), 1362-1376. PMID: 36527227; PMCID: PMC9760512. 

Enneking, B., Ryan, T., Tang, Q., James, C., Rouse, M., Curtin, M., & McNally Keehn, R. (2023). Acceptability and access metrics for telehealth consultation of pediatric neurodevelopmental disabilities during COVID-19. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 37(2), 200-207. 

Reisinger, D. L., Hines, E., Raches, C., Tang, Q., James, C., & McNally Keehn, R. (2022). Provider and caregiver satisfaction with telehealth evaluation of autism spectrum disorder in young children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 52(12):5099-5113. PMID: 35579789; PMCID: PMC9112250. 

McNally Keehn, R., Enneking, B., James, C., Tang, Q., Rouse, M., Hines, E., Raches, C., & Etling, A. (2021). Telehealth evaluation of pediatric neurodevelopmental disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic: Clinician and caregiver perspectives. Journal of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics, 43(5), 262-272. PMID: 34954761. 

4.    Clinical phenotyping of children with autism spectrum disorder for translational research 

Keehn B, Kadlaskar G, & McNally Keehn R. (2023). Elevated and accelerated: locus coeruleus activity and visual search abilities in children with ASD. Cortex. 1:169:118-29. PMID: 37866060; PMCID: PMC10842606. 

Kellerman, A. M., Hassan, M. Z., Abel, E. A., Reilly, M., McNally Keehn, R., & Schwichtenberg, A.J. (2022). Case report series: Autism risk within the context of two chromosome 15 syndromes. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 53(1):503-513. PMID: 34997429. 

Kadlaskar, G., Bergmann, S., McNally Keehn, R., Seidl, A., & Keehn, B. (2021). Equivalent behavioral facilitation to tactile cues in children with autism spectrum disorder. Brain Sciences, 11(5), 625. PMID: 34068187; PMCID: PMC8153018. 

Keehn, B., Kadlaskar, G., Bergmann, S., McNally Keehn, R., & Francis, A., (2021). Attentional disengagement and the locus coeruleus – norepinephrine system in children with autism spectrum disorder. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 15, 716447. PMID: 34531729; PMCID: PMC8438302.