People

Workshop announcement: Measuring the impacts of engaging people with lived and living experience in health research

The Public and Patient Engagement Collaborative (PPEC) led by Julia Abelson of McMaster University, is hosting a workshop on Friday March 8, 2024 at the UBC Robson Square in Vancouver on evaluating the impact of patient, family and caregiver engagement within research projects. Approaches and findings form case studies of patient engagement evaluation across research projects, networks and institutes will be shared. Workshop attendees will have the opportunity to discuss their current projects and plans for evaluation, and work through how to best approach evaluating the impact of their engagement work.

The workshop is open to researchers, engagement staff, trainees and patient partners working actively in research partnered with people with lived and living experience. All attendees should have a project underway or in development that they would like to evaluate that they can draw on and discuss during working sessions.

Registration is limited. There is no fee to attend the workshop.

To register, please complete the registration form by February 9, 2024. The PPEC will follow-up with all potential attendees by February 16th to confirm attendance, or placement on the wait list.

If you have any questions about the workshop, please connect with the PPEC directly at ppec@mcmaster.ca

Kathryn Birnie <kathryn.birnie@ucalgary.ca>

Kathryn Birnie <kathryn.birnie@ucalgary.ca>

Kathryn Birnie <kathryn.birnie@ucalgary.ca>

Kathryn Birnie <kathryn.birnie@ucalgary.ca>

Dr. Krista Baerg is a consultant pediatrician and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Saskatchewanand is the medical director of the Saskatoon Health Region Interdisciplinary Paediatric Complex Pain Clinic. Prior to entering medicine, she completed a bachelor of science in nursing and worked as a nurse in northern Canada.

Dr. Baerg is an active member of the Saskatoon Health Region Pediatric Pain Interprofessional Practice Council and Newborn Jaundice Working Group, as well as the Canadian Paediatric Society. She has served on the executive and as President (2015-2017) of the Section of Community Paediatrics, the Public Education Sub-Committee, and the Action Committee for Children and Youth.

Lee Bartel is Professor of Music and former Associate Dean – Research at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto and Founding Director of the Music and Health Research Collaboratory. He has taught at the graduate level in Research Methods, Music and the Brain, Evaluation, and Social Psychology of Music. He has extensive early experience as a music teacher at the elementary and high school levels and as a performing choral conductor, singer, violinist, and guitarist. He began teaching at college and university levels in 1975.

As a researcher he has pursued multiple interests including music topics in psychology, social psychology, health, curriculum, and music therapy, and general educational topics ranging from international educational reform to issues of schools, parents, and homework. He led a project with the Knowledge Network for Applied Educational Research (KNAER) in 3 school districts developing 42 teachers’ work with music composition and improvisation. He is well known for his research and design of music for health (24 albums with Somerset Entertainment) and music for children (60 albums with Fisher Price).

He is currently pursuing a research agenda of sound and brain stimulation at Mount Sinai Hospital, Wasser Pain Management Centre with pain conditions, with Dr. David Alter at Toronto Rehab on music and cardiac rehab, at Baycrest with Alzheimer’s, and at University Health Network with major depression.

After several years in managing basic and translational lab research (focus on new analgesic therapies, behavioral platform and advanced models of pain), Dr Beaudet shifted his focus to low back pain health trajectories and resource utilization. In 2014, he took a position as Associate Director for the Quebec Pain Research Network – a Fond de recherche du Québec – Santé network –  fostering interactions between 100+ pain researchers and clinicians province-wide.

Dr Beaudet is now working on strategic alliances with government bodies and the industry. He is appointed as an adjunct professor at the department of anesthesiology of the Université de Sherbrooke, with a focus on IT solutions for optimizing pain management. Dr Beaudet also co-founded the Quebec Network for Junior Pain Investigators, and the Center of Excellence in Neuroscience of the Université de Sherbrooke in 2006.

Billie Jo has a background in policy, communications and intergovernmental affairs. She is currently working on a collective action project to address gaps in education and awareness both within the health care sector and the community. Advocating for patient rights, she supports a more active participation in the development of patient treatment plans and the integration of care for patients living with chronic pain.

Billie Jo is a past Co-Chair of the Chronic Pain Network’s Patient Oriented Research Committee.

Mary Brachaniec is a retired physiotherapist with experience in several national and provincial Arthritis Society initiatives. She also served on the CIHR Institute for Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis Knowledge Exchange Task Force and the Cochrane Consumer Network for several years.

Mary is the past Co-Chair of the Chronic Pain Network’s Knowledge Translation committee.

A faculty member of McMaster University since 1988, Dr. Norm Buckley has served three term as Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesia, Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. Having held hospital administrative positions as Operating Room Director, Chief of Anesthesia (Chedoke McMaster) and Deputy Chief (Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation), Dr. Buckley’s particular interests are pain, both acute and chronic. His clinical work is focused on chronic pain management at the Michael G. DeGroote Pain Clinic, McMaster University Medical Centre.  In 2010, Dr. Buckley established and is the director of the Michael G. DeGroote National Pain Centre.   He is scientific director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Pain Research and Care. In addition to Dr. Buckley is the nominated principal applicant and Scientific Director of the SPOR-funded Chronic Pain Network.  With $25 million in funding, the focus of the Network is improved health outcomes for Canadians living with chronic pain.

Carolynn Bulmer is a group leader for the Vanderhoof Chronic Pain Self Management and Support Group. She participates the advisory committees with Northern Health and community physicians relating to chronic pain.

Carolynn sits on the Chronic Pain Network’s Patient Engagement committee.

Dr. Jason Busse is a chiropractor and clinical epidemiologist with appointments as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Anesthesia and Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster University.

Dr. Busse has been active clinically in the management of disability secondary to chronic pain since 1999. He has authored over 180 peer-reviewed publications with a focus on chronic pain, disability management, predictors of recovery, and methodological research. His academic efforts have been supported by a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and he was the principle investigator for the update and revision of the Canadian Opioids Guideline published in 2017.

Dr. Busse’s clinical interests include insurance medicine, orthopedic trauma, chronic pain and other medically unexplained syndromes, and management of complex disability. Dr. Busse is also interested in methodological research including expertise-based randomization and the use of composite endpoints in clinical trials.

Manon Choinière is a full professor with the Department of Anesthesiology at the Université de Montréal, as well as an accredited professor in the Department of Pharmacology and the School of Rehabilitation. She is a full-time researcher at the research centre the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal, where she leads the pain research group.

Dr. Choinière earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the Université de Montréal and went on to do her doctoral and postdoctoral work at McGill University in health psychology with a specialisation in the field of pain.

Dr. Choinière is one of the founding members of the Québec Pain Research Network (QPRN) of the Fonds de Recherche du Québec. In 2008, Dr. Choinière’s research team implemented the Quebec Pain Registry within the QPRN. Her research interests include bio-psycho-social and economical consequences of chronic pain; assessment of health care resources and quality of analgesic practices; risk factors of chronic pain after surgery; and assessment of the efficacy of knowledge exchange/transfer strategies in the field of pain.

Lynn Cooper was formerly president of the Canadian Pain Coalition, which disbanded in 2017. She has spent more than 20 years volunteering with organizations that seek to better understand issues surrounding chronic pain, and furthering research into and management of chronic pain.

Lynn sits on the Chronic Pain Network’s Steering committee

Dr. Kenneth Craig is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of British Columbia.  His research seeks to expand our understanding of pain by examining psychological and social parameters. Pain is often not recognized, inadequately assessed, underestimated, and either poorly managed or ignored.  The social environment determines whether an individual is exposed to pain, how it is experienced and expressed and how others assess and treat the individual.  Dr. Craig has explored how family and cultural environments influence children’s appraisals and emotional reactions during pain, how various forms of verbal and nonverbal communication inform others about the nature and severity of an individual’s pain and how health care professionals and others assess and make decisions concerning care delivery.

He currently has several areas of interest:  a) pain assessment in infants, children and populations with a limited ability to communicate, b) the distinction between automatic/reflexive and purposive/controlled pain expression, c) the relative importance of different cues and displays for accurate and biased observer judgments, and d) the application of computer vision and machine learning technologies to the objective assessment of pain.

Dr. Craig is a past-president of the Canadian Pain Society and the Canadian Psychological Association as well as former editor-in-chief of Pain Research & Management. His research, advocacy and professional contributions have led to numerous awards, including appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Since the sudden onset of severe pain, Jennifer has been on a journey of learning to live with pain and adapting to the dramatic changes this has brought to her daily life. She leverages her lived patient experience and professional background in making a contribution to chronic pain research in Canada. Jennifer sits on the Chronic Pain Network’s Patient Engagement Committee and Knowledge Translation Committee.

Jennifer sits on the Chronic Pain Network’s Patient Engagement Committee.

Karen Davis, PhD is a neuroscientist whose research uses brain imaging to investigate brain mechanisms underlying chronic pain, pain-attention interactions, outcomes of traumatic injuries, plasticity associated with treatment and recovery, and individual factors that contribute to disease vulnerability and recovery.

She is a Full Professor in the Department of Surgery and the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto, and Head of the Division of Brain, Imaging and Behaviour – Systems Neuroscience at the Krembil Research at University Health Network.

Dr. Davis has given over 160 invited lectures and her work has culminated in over 185 published papers and book chapters, with 13,000+ citations and an H-index of 63.  She also created a TED-Ed video “How does your brain respond to pain?” viewed over 1 million times. Dr Davis is a Councilor of the International Association for the Study of Pain, is active in research ethics, created a graduate student oath (published in Science), and in neuroethics pertaining to the development of a brain imaging-based indicators of pain. Dr. Davis was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2009.

Chris is a partner in an economic and management consulting firm in Halifax. As a volunteer and patient consultant involved in arthritis research for over a decade, Chris has worked with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, The Arthritis Society,Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance, Canadian Arthritis Network, and AbbVie Pharmaceutical Research & Development across a broad range of projects. Chris has also served as consumer advisor on a number of arthritis research initiatives.

Chris is the co-chair of the Clinical Research Network.

Dr. Devereaux obtained his MD from McMaster University.  After medical school he completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of Calgary and a residency in cardiology at Dalhousie University.  He then completed a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology at McMaster University.

He is the Director of the Division of Cardiology at McMaster University. He is also the Scientific Leader of the Anesthesiology, Perioperative Medicine, and Surgical Research Group at the Population Health Research Institute.  Dr. Devereaux is a full Professor and University Scholar in the Departments of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact (HEI) and Medicine at McMaster University.

The focus of his clinic research is vascular complications around the time of surgery. He is undertaking several large international RCTs and observational studies addressing this issue. He has published >250 peer reviewed papers and >50 book chapters and editorials. He is supported by a Tier 1 Canadian Research Chair in Perioperative Medicine, and he holds the Yusuf Chair in Cardiology at McMaster University.

Mario seeks to help improve healthcare by partnering, as a patient, with various institutions and organisations. He is a Co-Facilitator in the Faculty of Medicine of University of Montreal, a Master Trainer of chronic disease and chronic pain self-management programmes with Stanford University, a Patient Advisor at McGill University Health Centre and a Patient Surveyor at Accreditation Canada.

Mario sits on the Chronic Pain Network’s Patient Engagement committee.

Dr. Luda Diatchenko is a world-renowned expert in the genetic basis of pain in humans and the development of personalized medicine approaches. Prior to becoming the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Human Pain Genetics, she was a professor in the Center for Neurosensory Disorders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Diatchenko has authored and published dozens of peer-reviewed research papers and has invented several commercially relevant patents. Her most significant papers relate to the psychological, molecular, cellular, and genetic pathways that mediate both persistent pain states and initial pain reactions. Her recent research focuses on determining the biological ways through which genetics impacts someone’s pain perception, and their risk of developing chronic pain.

In addition, Diatchenko brings vast industry-based experience to McGill University’s Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain. She is co-founder and chief scientific officer of Algynomics, a company creating novel approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain conditions. Previously, she co-founded and then served as director of gene discovery at Attagene, Inc. During this time, Diatchenko was actively involved in the development of several widely used molecular tools for the analysis of gene expression and regulation.

Dr. Scott Duggan earned his M.Sc. in Pharmacology from Queen’s University in 1994. In 1998, he graduated from medical school at the University of Calgary. Dr. Duggan went on to complete Anesthesia Postgraduate Training at the University of Ottawa in 2004.

Dr. Duggan is currently program manager of the chronic pain clinic at Hotel Dieu Hospital, in Kingston, Ontario.

Dr. El-Gabalawy is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Clinical Health Psychology and Anesthesia & Perioperative Medicine in the Max Rady College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. She also holds secondary adjunct appointments in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology (Fort Garry Campus).

As a Vanier Scholar, she received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Manitoba in 2015 under the co-supervision of Drs. Corey Mackenzie (Psychology) and Jitender Sareen (Psychiatry). She also completed a predoctoral research fellowship supported by a CIHR Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement at Yale University under the supervision of Dr. Robert Pietrzak. Before joining the faculty at the University of Manitoba, Dr. El-Gabalawy completed her Clinical Psychology residency at the Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston Consortium) with a behavioural medicine and civilian trauma emphasis.

Her research focuses on 1) how psychological factors impact surgical outcomes, and 2) understanding the relationship between psychological health and chronic pain conditions, particularly inflammatory conditions.

Kathleen Eubanks is the Co-Founder and President of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Canada.

Kathleen sits on the Chronic Pain Network’s Patient Engagement committee.

Dr. Allen Finley is a pediatric anesthesiologist who has worked for more than 25 years in pain research and management. He is Professor of Anesthesia and Psychology at Dalhousie University, and holds the inaugural Dr. Stewart Wenning Chair in Pediatric Pain Management at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax.

He has published over 125 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has lectured widely, with 285 invited presentations on six continents. He started the PEDIATRIC-PAIN e-mail discussion list in 1993, bringing together pain researchers and clinicians from over 40 countries.

His own research and educational projects have taken him to Jordan, Thailand, China, Brazil, and elsewhere. His main interest is pain service development and advocacy for improved pain care for children around the world, and he is Board Chair of the ChildKind International Initiative.

In 2016 he was elected to the Executive of the International Association for the Study of Pain as Treasurer. He is looking forward to being part of the promotion of pain science and pain care around the world.

The Centre for Pediatric Pain Research website is at pediatric-pain.ca.

Dr. Louis Gendron professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Université de Sherbrooke. He is also Director of the Inflammation-Pain Axis of the CHUS Research Center and an active member of the Quebec Network for Pain Research (RQRD) and the Sherbrooke Institute of Pharmacology (IPS). Dr. Gendron’s research focuses on the delta opioid receptor, a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) of interest in the treatment of chronic pain. Using cellular techniques and adapted techniques for the study of animals, his team seeks to characterize the mechanism of action, regulation and cellular trafficking of the opioid delta receptor, as well as its roles in the treatment of pain, Anxiety and depression. Professor Gendron is also an associate editor in the journal Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry.

Dr. Nader Ghasemlou is an assistant professor at Queen’s University and director of Queen’s Translational Research in Pain. He earned his PhD in Neuroscience from McGill University in 2008, and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Pain Physiology fro Harvard Medical School & Boston Children’s Hospital.

Work in Dr. Ghasemlou’s lab is focused on understanding the interactions that take place between the nervous and immune systems during injury and disease, with a focus on how inflammation can alter pain outcomes. By using models of central and peripheral nervous system damage (such as spinal cord injury, Multiple Sclerosis, nerve injury) and tissue damage (such as post-surgical wound), his team is working to identify the mechanisms through which inflammatory cells and their mediators interact with ion channels and receptors on sensory neurons.

This work is done in close collaboration with physicians at Kingston General Hospital, particularly in the Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine, and across Canada. They strive to carry out transformative and translational research projects that will lead to the development of new therapeutics to help patients using a bedside-to-bench and back approach.

Dr. Ian Gilron is an anesthesiologist, Professor of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine, Biomedical & Molecular Sciences and Neuroscience Studies, and Director of Clinical Pain Research at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He is the current recipient of a SEAMO Clinician Scientist Research Salary Award and has been continuously funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) since 2000 for an innovative pain research program.

Among over 100 career-spanning peer-reviewed journal publications, work from Dr. Gilron’s team at Queen’s University has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, CMAJ, Pain, Anesthesiology and other journals. He has co-authored the Canadian Pain Society and IASP NeuPSIG guidelines on neuropathic pain treatment.

Dr. Gilron is a Councilor of the International Association for the Study of Pain, serves on the Executive Committee of the Analgesic “ACTTION” partnership and is one of the Principal Investigators of the CIHR SPOR Chronic Pain Network.

Janet Gunderson has been an active volunteer with The Arthritis Society for more 15 years. She is currently on the steering committee for the Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance and was formerly on The Consumer Advisory Council for the Canadian Arthritis Network. Janet is also active with the Cochrane Collaboration.

Janet sits on the Chronic Pain Network’s Patient Engagement committee. She is also a member of the SPOR Evidence Alliance and the Saskatchewan SPOR network (SCPOR).

Thomas Hadjistavropoulos is Professor of Psychology, University of Regina and Past-President of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA). He is internationally recognized as an authority on pain among seniors with his methodologies now being applied by researchers and clinicians all over the world.

Dr. Hadjistavropoulos has shown leadership in the promotion of the health sciences at the local, national and international level and has been honoured through a long list of prestigious awards and distinctions including a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Investigator Award, a Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation Achievement Award and many others.

Photo courtesy of University of Regina, Department of Photography

Maria Hudspith is the inaugural Executive Director of Pain BC, a position she has held since June 2010. With two decades of experience in community development and systems change, Maria provides strategic leadership, focused on education, engagement, knowledge translation and advocacy in support of people living with chronic pain. Her responsibilities include developing and implementing strategic and operational plans, designing and evaluating programs, leading fundraising efforts and developing and sustaining partnerships.

Maria has more than two decades of experience working in the public sector to mobilize communities, democratize organizations and advance progressive agendas through policy change and program development.

Dr. Jan Huizinga teaches and has his research laboratory at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He is professor of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

His research focuses on the role of Interstitial cells of Cajal in the control of motility of the gastrointestinal tract. He has published widely in Nature, Nature Medicine, Gastroenterology and other professional journals. He has received many awards such as the Third Janssen Award of the International Motility Society, the research excellence award of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology and he also received the Merck Frosst award from the Canadian Pharmacology society.

He was recently awarded Honorary Professor of Hubei Cancer Hospital of Wuhan University. He spent a one year sabbatical at Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University with Dr. Jihong Chen, where a basic science lab was created and High-Resolution Manometry was performed on patients with chronic constipation.

Dr. Huizinga, with his clinical colleagues at the Farncombe Institute, is now preparing for a HRM colon motor function clinical lab at McMaster University. He recently received the 2015 Canadian Association of Gastroenterology Visiting Research Professor Award.

His research focuses on control systems of gastrointestinal motility with primary focus on the role of interstitial Cajal, and a secondary focus on the enteric nervous system.

Dr. Alfonso Iorio is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact McMaster University. He is the Director of the Health Information Research Unit, a research unit that conducts research in the field of health information science. He is also the Director of the Hamilton-Niagara Regional Hemophilia Treatment Centre located in the McMaster Children’s Hospital as well as having clinical on-call privileges at the Juravinski and McMaster Thrombosis Clinics.

He is the principal investigator of three multicentre initiatives: CHESS (Canadian Hemophilia Surveillance Scheme), the Canadian “branch” of the EUHASS surveillance scheme for adverse effects of haemophilia treatment; CBDR (Canadian Bleeding Disorders Registry), the new clinical management software used by a network of hemophilia clinics in Canada; and WAPPS-Hemo (Web Available Population Pharmacokinetics Service for Hemophilia), a web-based solution for simplified estimation of individual factor concentrate pharmacokinetics.

Dr. Iorio is an Associate Editor for Blood Coagulation Disorders of the Cystic Fibrosis and Genetic Disorders Review Group of the Cochrane Collaboration, Chair of the Data and Demographics Committee of the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) and he is also on various editorial boards including ACP Journal Club and the Journal of Haemophila.

Dr. Jarvi is the Director of the Murray Koffler Urologic Wellness Centre and Head of Urology at the Mount Sinai Hospital.  He is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto and directs the Male Infertility Program at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Jarvi completed his Urology Residency at the University of Toronto and then had Fellowship training in Male Reproduction with Dr. Dale McClure at the University of California at San Francisco and a basic science fellowship in Male Reproduction supervised by Dr. Claude Gagnon at McGill University in Montreal.

Dr. Jarvi then began the Male Reproductive Medicine program at the University of Toronto.  This program is a centre of excellence for the management of male infertility and has grown into the largest clinical program of its kind in Canada and one of the largest in North America.  Close to 1000 new patients are seen yearly with more than 5,000 patient visits.

The program involves a multi-disciplinary team from Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Department of Medical Imaging, Medical Genetics and Obstetrics and Gynecology. The centre acts as a tertiary referral centre for difficult infertility cases. At the clinic, patients are seen from all over Canada and from many parts of the world.

Dr. Jarvi has been at the forefront of the use of new and innovative surgical techniques in Canada, directing the largest program in Canada dedicated to the investigation and treatment for men with chronic scrotal pain. His team also has research into novel treatments for men with this condition including the use of Botox and other therapies. Dr. Jarvi was also the first in Canada to perform sperm aspiration for in-vitro fertilization, use a minimally invasive technique to retrieve sperm, use the sperm mapping procedure to retrieve sperm and use the newest technique of micro-surgical reconstruction of an obstruction of the reproductive tract.

Isabel Jordan is the Chair of the Rare Disease Foundation, as well as a founding member. Isabel has volunteered with many non-profit groups and is active with Vancouver Parent 2 Parent Resource Network and a partner in the #ItDoesn’tHavetoHurt campaign.

Isabel sat on the Chronic Pain Network’s Knowledge Translation committee.

Therese is a patient advocate, volunteer and active member of Action Ontario PNP (peripheral nerve pain).

Theresa sits on the Chronic Pain Network’s Patient Engagement committee.

Dr. Latimer completed a PhD from McGill University (2006) and a post doctorate from Laval University (2010) in neuroscience. She holds a scientific appointment with the IWK and is faculty in the IWK Centre for Pediatric Pain Research. She works closely with communities to mobilize Indigenous knowledge and co-leads the CIHR funded research “Aboriginal Children’s Hurt and Healing” Initiative with Eskasoni Health Director, Sharon Rudderham.

Rebecca Lee is a spokesperson for The Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides, contributor to the chronic illness and disability publication The Mighty and past member of Queen’s University InvisAbilities. She holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Biology from Queen’s University.

Rebecca sits on the Chronic Pain Network’s Patient Engagement committee.

Dr. Joy MacDermid is a Professor at the School of Physical Therapy at Western University, Canada. She holds a CIHR Chair in Gender, Work and Health, and the Dr. James Roth Research Chair in Musculoskeletal Measurement and Knowledge Translation. She is also the Co-director of the Clinical Research Lab within the Hand and Upper Limb Centre (HULC) in London, Ontario and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Dr. MacDermid is cross-appointed to the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University.

Dr. MacDermid is a hand therapist/physical therapist/epidemiologist and has published over 370 peer-reviewed papers that focus on measuring and predicting musculoskeletal disability. Her methodology expertise is in measurement, knowledge translation, clinical trials, systematic reviews, clinical practice guidelines, cohort studies/clinical prediction. She has developed outcome measures that are used internationally including self-report measures like The Patient Rated Wrist/Hand Evaluation; and impairment-based measures that assess the neuromusculoskeletal function of the upper limb.

Dr. MacDermid is the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Hand Therapy and the Associate Editor for the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy.

Dr. Serge Marchand is a neurophysiologist, a professor at the University of Quebec, in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, and an associate professor at McGill University. His research interests focus on the endogenous mechanisms of pain modulation.

Curtis is a medical student at the University of British Columbia. He is a research assistant at a chronic pain clinic, CHANGEpain clinic in Vancouver and a volunteer with Pain BC. He plays the saxophone and is a farmer.

Curtis is part of the Chronic Pain Network’s Registry Working Group.

Dr. Michael McGillion is an Associate Professor and holds the Heart and Stroke Foundation/Michael G. DeGroote Endowed Chair of Cardiovascular Nursing Research at the McMaster University School of Nursing. Dr. McGillion was Chair of the Joint Canadian Cardiovascular Society – Canadian Pain Society guidelines for the management of refractory angina, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

His current CIHR-funded research program focuses on remote automated monitoring and virtual recovery support for people recovering from cardiac and vascular surgery, social and psychological predictors of chronic post-surgical pain following cardiac surgery, patient decision support, and web-based knowledge dissemination.

Dr. McGillion is an appointed member of the Heart and Stroke Foundation Inaugural Pan-Canadian Council on Mission: Priorities, Advice, Science and Strategy (CoMPASS). He has been recognized for his research and advocacy by receiving the Canadian Pain Society Early Career Award and the McMaster University Arch Award for outstanding contributions to society.

Dr. Dwight Moulin received his MD from the University of Western Ontario (UWO) in London, Ontario and then completed his fellowship in Neurology at the same institution. After completing a 2-year Pain Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York City, he joined the faculty at the Schulich School of Medicine at UWO and is currently Professor in the Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences and the Earl Russell Chair of Pain Medicine.

Dr. Moulin’s early work focused on the prevalence of chronic pain in multiple sclerosis and Guillain-Barre syndrome—two neurological conditions where pain was not well-recognized. He then went on to lead the first randomized, controlled trial of a major opioid in the management of chronic non-cancer pain and was a contributor to a study of controlled-release oxycodone in painful diabetic neuropathy. His more recent work has focused on the prevalence, treatment and impact of opioids in chronic pain in Canada and the use of methadone in neuropathic pain.

Dr. Moulin has chaired the Neuropathic Pain Special Interest Group of the Canadian Pain Society since 2005 and led the Consensus Statement on the Pharmacological Management of Chronic Neuropathic Pain which was published in 2007. His current interests include a multi-centre study on the long term outcome of the management of neuropathic pain, the role of intravenous lidocaine in painful neuropathy and functional MRI changes in fibromyalgia and complex regional pain syndrome.

Melanie Noel is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Calgary, a Full Member of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute (Behaviour and the Developing Brain Theme), and an Associate Member of the Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education. Prior to launching her research lab within the Vi Riddell Children’s Pain and Rehabilitation Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital, Dr. Noel received training in pediatric acute and chronic pain research in Canada and the United States.

Dr. Noel’s research expertise is in the area of children’s memories for pain and co-occurring mental health issues and pediatric chronic pain. She has published conceptual psychological models of children’s pain memory development, co-occurring PTSD and chronic pain, and fear-avoidance. Her current research is funded by a Society of Pediatric Psychology Targeted Research Grant, an American Pain Society Future Leaders in Pain Research Grant, the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Strategy for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR). She is also a co-investigator on the Canadian Institutes of Health Research SPOR ‘Chronic Pain Network’, a cross-national group of chronic pain researchers and patients. In recognition of her contributions to advancing knowledge of the psychological aspects of children’s pain, Dr. Noel was named the most recent recipient of the Canadian Pain Society Early Career Award and the Canadian Psychological Association President’s New Researcher Award.

Dr. Noel is an advocate for the use of developmentally tailored psychological interventions for pediatric pain management and serves on committees to assess, promote, and implement evidence-based interventions within her children’s hospital and beyond. She is a member of the SPOR Pediatric Pain Registry sub-committee and a national collaborator on the Pain in Child Health Strategic Training Initiative. As an evidence lead on the HELPinKids&Adults (Help Eliminate Pain in Kids and Adults) team, Dr. Noel co-authored clinical practice guidelines for pain and fear management for vaccine injections across the lifespan. Many of these recommendations were adopted by the World Health Organization.

Dr. Patricia Poulin is Clinical, Health, and Rehabilitation Psychologist at The Ottawa Hospital Pain Clinic, an associate investigator at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and a clinical professor with the University of Ottawa School of Psychology, with a cross-appointment to the Department of Anesthesiology. Following the completion of her Ph.D. in 2009 (University of Toronto), Dr. Poulin completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Clinical, Health and Rehabilitation Psychology with the Ottawa Hospital Institute for Rehabilitation Research and Development.

Dr. Poulin’s academic and clinical interests include: prevention, treatment and management of chronic pain, as well as opioid tolerance and addiction in the setting of chronic pain; the role of mindfulness-based intervention in the management and treatment of chronic pain and other chronic diseases; and the effect of mindfulness-based intervention on the brain as well as on biomarkers of stress and immune function. She is also a strong proponent of patient engagement in research and health care quality improvement.

Dr. Steve Prescott obtained his MD and PhD from McGill University in 2005. His doctoral research focused on the investigation of pain processing using electrophysiology, pharmacology, and cellular imaging.

After completing postdoctoral training in computational neuroscience at the Salk Institute, he established his own lab at the University of Pittsburgh in 2008 before moving to SickKids in 2012.

His lab combines a broad range of techniques to study how sensory information is processed by the nervous system and how disruption of that processing gives rise to neuropathic pain.

Sharon Rudderham is the Health Director of the Eskasoni Community Health Centre on Cape Breton Island. Sharon was a member of the Nova Scotia Tribal Council and the Union of Nova Scotia Indians, and has has been involved with the Assembly of First Nations. She served as a member of the Nova Scotia Provincial Health Council, and has been instrumental in the development of the Un’maki Client Linkage Registry (a collaborative healthcare database for the 5 Cape Breton Mi’kmaq communities). She is responsible for all aspects of the ACHH Initiative, and provides leadership from an Indigenous knowledge perspective.

Dr. Michael Salter is Chief of Research at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), a Senior Scientist in the Program in Neurosciences & Mental Health, and a Professor of Physiology at the University of Toronto.

Salter received an MD degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1982 and went on to obtain a PhD in Physiology from McGill in 1987. After post-doctoral training at Toronto Western and at Mt. Sinai hospitals, he joined the Research Institute of SickKids in 1990. From 1999 to 2009 Salter was the founding Director of the University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain.

Salter’s main research focus is on synaptic physiology, in particular in relation to pain, and he has done ground breaking work that has led to new paradigms about neuroplasticity and about how synaptic transmission in the central nervous system is regulated by biochemical processes within neurons and by glial-neuronal interactions. His discoveries have broad implications for the control of cell-cell communication throughout the nervous system and his work has regularly appeared in elite journals including Nature, Science, Cell, Nature Medicine and Neuron.  Salter has a broad interest in neuroscience and his work relevant to learning and memory, stroke-induced neuron death, epilepsy and schizophrenia. As a distinct line of research, he and his collaborators reported in Cell in 2006 their discovery of a previously unsuspected role for sensory neurons in the pathogenesis of diabetes and in the control of glucose homeostasis.

To facilitate the translation of his fundamental studies to the development of new therapies for humans, Salter is a founding scientist and actively involved in a start-up biotech company – NoNO Inc. Salter currently holds the Northbridge Chair in Paediatric Research.  He has received numerous awards including the E.B. Eastburn Award, the John Charles Polyani Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Early Career Investigator Award of the Canadian Pain Society, the Distinguished Career Investigator Award of the Canadian Pain Society, and was an International Research Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Dr. Phillippe Sarret is Chair of Canadian Research in Neurophysiopharmacology of Chronic Pain, and is Director of the Center for Neurosciences Research at the University of Sherbrooke. He received his PhD at the Institute of Pharmacology in France and completed post-doctoral training at McGill University.

Dr. Schneider’s studies aim to improve the motor / cognitive functions or reduce pain in people living with neurological, musculoskeletal or chronic pain problems (eg, low back pain, complex regional pain syndrome) or neuropathic pain. The idea is to influence cerebral plasticity (brain adaptation potential) through the use of new targeted neurostimulation techniques (non-invasive, painless).

Neurostimulation allows a regulation of brain activity (neuromodulation), which leads to the reactivation of neural networks spared and therefore available for rehabilitation.

Dr. Schneider’s “Laboratory of Neurostimulation and Clinical Neurosciences” aims to improve the quality of life of patients, while gaining a more fundamental understanding of the health problems targeted. Future work will aim to better define the optimal periods of neurostimulation, ie “therapeutic windows” to induce cerebral plasticity that will lead to the best recovery of lost or altered functions. These studies will also make it possible to refine the diagnoses and prognoses of recovery in each problem and to identify the factors predicting the success of these exploratory approaches.

Dr. Gurmit Singh is Professor of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

His research interests include experimental therapeutics in breast and prostate cancer, with an emphasis in bone metastasis. He serves on a number of national and international scientific review panels that include CIHR, NCIC, CFI, and the U.S. Army and Naval panels. In addition, he is an external grant reviewer for several research foundations and belongs to many associations including the American Association for Cancer Research, American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Metastasis Research Society. He also serves on the editorial board of several scientific journals.

Dr. Singh served as chair of the Board of Directors for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (Ontario), and is a member of the National Board of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

He currently serves as chair of the Panel on Biology of Prostate Cancer for Prostate Cancer Canada as well as Chair of the Prairies NW Scientific Advisory Board for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

Karen Smith comes from a background in public relations. She has served on many non-profit boards and is involved in the health sector as a speaker for clinical education. She is a university health mentor at Dalhousie University and makes public presentations focusing on the “stigma and social consequences of pain.” She also sits on the Canadian Pain Society’s Scientific committee.

Karen sits on the Chronic Pain Network’s Executive committee.

Dr. Cathy Smyth is an assistant professor of Anesthesiology at the University of Ottawa. She earned a PhD in Physiology and Biophysics from Dalhousie University, in 1995, and an MD from McMaster University in 1996.

In 2011, Dr. Smyth received the Physician Clinician Recognition Award from the Ottawa Hospital. She was also the recipient of the Physician Services Incorporated Research Aware, in 2014.

Bonnie Stevens received her BScN from McMaster University, her MScN from the University of Toronto, and her PhD from McGill University.

Dr. Stevens is currently a Professor in the Faculties of Nursing and Medicine at the University of Toronto, and holds the Signy Hildur Eaton Chair in Paediatric Nursing Research at the Hospital for Sick Children, the first of its kind in Canada.

The major foci of Dr. Stevens’s research include the assessment and management of pain in infants and children, as well as the impact of various health care delivery models on child and family quality of life and knowledge translation.

Dr. Stevens has received research funds over the past five years from national and international funding agencies and foundations to support these research interests. She has also published and presented on a global platform. She has recently co-edited the book “Pain in Neonates and Infants ” (3rd Edition, Elsevier) with Drs. Sunny Anand and Patrick McGrath.

Dr. Jennifer Stinson is a Nurse Clinician-Scientist in Child Health Evaluative Sciences and an Advanced Practice Nurse in the Chronic Pain Program at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. She is also an Associate Professor in the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, Institute of Medical Sciences and Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.

Her major clinical research interests are in the area of pain and symptom management and the use of e-health (internet) and m-health (mobile phones) technologies to improve the assessment and management of pain and other symptoms in children with painful chronic and life threatening illnesses.

Her innovative research work using digital health technologies has been recognized by her receiving several prestigious New Investigator Career Scientist Awards including the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, the Canadian Arthritis Network, The Early Researcher Award and the CIHR Peter Lougheed CIHR. She is also the inaugural Mary Jo Haddad Nursing Research Chair in Child Health at SickKids.

Dr. Stinson has also been actively involved in the Canadian Pain Society, serving as secretary, newsletter editor and, most recently, as co-chair of the scientific program committee.

Janice is a person living with pain of various types throughout her life which includes neuropathic pain and fibromyalgia since 1998. Janice worked as a pharmacist in a teaching hospital for over 36 years. Janice worked in various capacities including an interdisciplinary team member of the Pediatric Chronic Pain Program at Children’s Hospital in London.

She is Co-Chair of the Patient/Public Working Group for the National Faculty at the National Pain Centre in Hamilton. Janice is on the Steering Council of the Fibromyalgia Association of Canada and is involved on the Research and Education Committees.

Janice sits on the Chronic Pain Network’s Patient Oriented Research Committee.

Dr. Karine Toupin-April is an Associate Scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Ottawa. She is a co-director of the “Society, the Individual and Medicine” courses offered to medical students in the Francophone stream at the University of Ottawa. She is also one of the editors in the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group.

Dr. Toupin-April holds a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy, a Master’s degree in Rehabilitation, and a PhD in Public Health and Epidemiology from the University of Montreal. She also completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Epidemiology and Community Medicine at the University of Ottawa.

She has research expertise in chronic disease management, complementary and alternative medicine, patient-reported outcome measures, shared decision making and knowledge translation. Her research includes the development and assessment of patient-reported outcome measures, decision support interventions and self-management tools in pediatric and adult rheumatology. As a young investigator, her program of research aims to develop and evaluate a decision support intervention to help youth with juvenile arthritis to choose among pain management options. Her research is funded by The Arthritis Society and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Dave is a Physiotherapist and Associate Professor with the School of Physical Therapy at Western University, an Associate Scientist with the Lawson Health Research Institute, and Director of the Pain and Quality of Life Integrative Research Lab.  His teaching duties are in the Pain elective and Professional Consolidation courses in the Master’s of Physical Therapy (MPT) program and he contributes as assistant and sessional lecturer in the Master’s of Clinical Science (Manipulative Therapy) program.

His research interests are focused on assessment and prognosis in acute and chronic pain, especially in pain arising from musculoskeletal trauma such as whiplash, sporting, or work injuries.  Dave is de facto Chair of two interdisciplinary research groups at Western: the Collaboration for the Integration of Rehabilitation with Consumer Electronic (CIRCLE) and the Solving Traumatic Pain and Disability through Advanced Research Translation (START) groups.

He has over 50 scientific publications, book chapters, and several national and international presentations and workshops.  Significant awards include two faculty Teaching Awards of Excellence, the 2014 Canadian Physiotherapy Association National Mentorship Award, and Early Career Investigator Awards from the Canadian Pain Society (2015) and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (2016). Dave is a Western Faculty Scholar, as well as a Western Teaching Fellow.

Outside of the university, Dave provides high-quality continuing professional development sessions on pain assessment, managing neck disorders, interpersonal skills development and teaching development for providers of professional development.  He is an active member of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association including as co-founder of the Pain Science Division, an Associate Editor with the scientific journal The Journal of Musculoskeletal Science & Practice, an International Editor with The Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy, Secretary of the Education SIG of the International Association for the Study of Pain, and sits on the steering committees of the Allied Health Section of the North American Spine Society and the International Whiplash Consortium.

In his spare time he is a fan of good fathering, the Toronto Blue Jays baseball club, barbecue cuisine and the blues harmonica.

Dr. Mark Ware is an Associate Professor in Family Medicine and Anesthesia at McGill University, as well as the Director of Clinical Research of the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), the Co-Director of the Quebec Pain Research Network and the Executive Director of the non-profit Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids.

Dr. Ware’s primary research interests are in evaluating the safety and effectiveness of medicines derived from cannabis (cannabinoids). He is involved in population-based studies of the impact of pain on the population, and the evaluation of complementary therapies in pain and symptom management. Dr. Ware’s research is supported by the FRQ-S, CIHR, the Louise and Alan Edwards Foundation, the Arthritis Society, ALS Canada, the Canadian HIV Trials Network and grants from pharmaceutical companies.

Dr. Judy Watt-Watson is a pioneer in the study of pain. Her research has focused on establishing pain prevalence and related risk factors, particularly for cardiac surgical patients, and interventions involving health professionals and patients. She led the campaign to include pain in the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation Standards.

At University of Toronto Nursing, Dr. Watt-Watson was the inaugural Executive Director of the Centre for Professional Development (formerly named the Centre for Advanced Studies in Professional Practice). She was the inaugural Chair of the U of T Centre for the Study of Pain’s interfaculty pain curriculum, which involves six health-science faculties.

A recipient of the Distinguished Career Award from the Canadian Pain Society and numerous other awards, Dr. Watt-Watson is PAST-President of the Canadian Pain Society and a member of the Executive Committee of the U of T Centre for the Study of Pain. She WAS a member of the Pain Education Initiative Working Group of the International Association for the Study of Pain, and Chair of its subgroup on interprofessional pain education.

Dr. Watt-Watson is a Faculty Associate at University Health Network and an Associate Scientific Staff of the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. She is also a Senior Fellow at U of T’s Massey College.

Marc White is co-founder, CEO and President of the Canadian Institute for the Relief of Pain and Disability. He is also a clinical assistant professor with the Department of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia.

Marc sits on the Chronic Pain Network’s Patient Oriented Research committee and is part of the Clinical Research Network.