Leila Jafari Moghadam

Mahak Hospital and Rehabilitation Complex

Papers

Total Citations

172

H-Index

About

Leila Jafari Moghadam is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of pediatric oncology and human-robot interaction, whose work has fundamentally reshaped how we approach psychosocial care for children with cancer. Her primary research focuses on leveraging social humanoid robots as therapeutic assistants to mitigate the profound psychological distress—including anger, anxiety, and depression—that often accompanies invasive cancer treatments. In her landmark 2015 study, which has accumulated 119 citations, she demonstrated the clinical viability of humanoid robots in pediatric cancer interventions, showing that robot-assisted therapy can significantly improve young patients' treatment acceptance and emotional adaptation. Her subsequent work (2014) further quantified these benefits, revealing measurable reductions in distress symptoms that directly impact treatment efficacy. By establishing robots as non-pharmacological, engaging tools for emotional support, Jafari Moghadam has opened a vital new frontier in supportive oncology. Her contributions are particularly notable for bridging engineering, psychology, and clinical medicine, offering a compassionate, technology-driven solution to one of pediatric care's most challenging obstacles: the fear and trauma that can compromise a child's will to heal.