Presenting: The Pain Issue | UofTMed Magazine

Can We Talk About Pain?

We flinch in anticipation —
a squint, a grimace, a breath held tight.
Sudden or slow.
Lingering or fleeting.
Pain is the body’s Red Alert —
shaping how we move, live and heal.
More than sensation,
pain is a memory, biology, psychology.

The Summer 2025 issue of UofT Med Magazine invites readers to explore the many dimensions of pain — how we feel it, fight it, and begin to understand it. And how science is bringing us closer to lasting relief.

📰 Explore the issue: From personal stories to innovative research, the magazine explores how pain is being redefined, understood, and more effectively treated.


Jennifer Stinson receives 2025 Peter Gilgan Canada Gairdner Momentum Award

The first nurse scientist to receive a Gairdner award, Jennifer Stinson is recognized for her use of digital interventions, including mobile apps and virtual reality, to improve chronic pain management in children

Jennifer Stinson, a nurse practitioner and senior scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and the Mary Jo Haddad Nursing Chair in Child Health, has received the prestigious Peter Gilgan Canada Gairdner Momentum Award.

A professor in the University of Toronto’s Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, Stinson is recognized for her scientific contributions in the field of pediatric pain specifically her use of digital interventions – such as mobile apps, virtual reality, and robotics – to improve chronic pain management in children.

She is the first nurse clinician scientist to ever receive the award, which is presented annually by the Gairdner Foundation to mid-career researchers in Canada whose work has had a fundamental and lasting impact on human health.

“Receiving the Peter Gilgan Canada Gairdner Momentum Award is an incredible honour,“ Stinson says. “It validates the important work we are doing in pediatric pain management and the need to continue advancing digital health interventions.”

Realizing nurses can make a difference

The Gairdner was awarded to eight researchers in 2025, including one other at U of TDaniel De Carvalho, a senior scientist at the University Health Network and an associate professor of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives, congratulated both Stinson and De Carvalho on their respective honours.

“Professor Stinson’s work in pediatric pain management and Professor De Carvalho’s contributions to cancer epigenetics are helping transform the lives of patients around the world,” said Cowen. “On behalf of U of T, I would like to extend my congratulations to these exceptional scholars on their worthy recognition by the Gairdner Foundation.”

in Stinson’s case, the award underscores the key role nurse scientists play in addressing the complex health care needs of various populations.

Researching chronic pain in children – and ways to improve it – became the cornerstone of Stinson’s life’s work. It was during her PhD at U of T’s Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing that she first developed the chronic pain program at SickKids, the largest pain clinic in Canada, which is still in use today.

“I was motivated by the difference nurses could make in pain care for hospitalized children,” says Stinson. “Health-care providers are not taught how to manage or treat pain in children very effectively, and when we don’t intervene, these children have a reduced quality of life and become adults with chronic pain, often living with negative outcomes.”

Stinson has focused her scientific research in line with the Lancet Commission’s four transformative goals for pediatric pain – to make pain matter, understood, visible and better.

“Professor Stinson is an exceptional researcher in the field of pediatric pain management, and her exemplary work is deserving of this honour from the Gairdner Foundation,” says Robyn Stremler, dean of the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing. “Her work is not only moving the future of pain management forward, but it also demonstrates the impact of nurse-led innovations in clinical care, and nursing expertise on human health-care policies.”

Using smartphones and robots to cope with chronic pain

Stinson’s most recent work has focused on youth living with sickle cell disease (SCD) who experience recurrent chronic pain. iCanCope, a smartphone and web-based app was developed by Stinson and her lab to provide young people with SCD skills to self-manage their pain. The app includes personalized CBT-based coping mechanisms, such as deep breathing and relaxation techniques, as well as goal-setting tools and social support from peers.

Following positive findings for the app’s use in a randomized controlled trial, Stinson has received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to conduct an implementation study in sickle cell clinics across Canada to improve access to the pain management tool.

Many of the digital interventions that Stinson has developed or studied have been purposely embedded into clinical practice to ensure they are easier to implement into a child’s care.

MEDi the humanoid robot was a digital innovation Stinson introduced to young oncology patients at SickKids in a 2017 study. The singing, dancing, robot, which still operates in the SickKids ER, helps to calm children’s anxieties and stress around such medical procedures. Her other projects including Pain Squad, an app that uses gamification to help kids track their cancer pain and iPeer2Peer, a virtual mentoring program that matches teens with young adults with the same condition, are uniquely co-designed with patients, families and clinicians.

“Most research takes 17 years or more to make it into the hands of patients – that’s a generation of children potentially not benefitting from innovative work,” Stinson says. “It is why my team uses implementation science methods to scale and spread our interventions to improve access to evidence-based pain care.”

Nursing researchers are the future of pain care

In addition to being recognized for her research, the Gairdner acknowledges Stinson’s dedication to training the next generation of pediatric pain researchers and clinician scientists, especially those with a nursing perspective.

“I think most people do not realize the variety of leadership roles that nurses play in the health-care setting,” says Stinson.  “I am lucky to have the best job in the world, where I get to work as a nurse practitioner in the chronic pain program at SickKids and use my research to address the priorities of Canadian youth living with chronic pain.”


Candian Pain Society Meeting 2025: Bridging the Gap Between Research and Lived Experience

The recent Canadian Pain Society (CPS) meeting ended with a bang—one of the final sessions brought together trainees and people with lived/living experience (PWLE) in a powerful and energizing way. Both groups had been expressing a desire to connect informally: trainees wanted to better understand the lived experience of pain and how their research makes an impact, while PWLE wanted to support the next generation of researchers in engaging in meaningful, patient-oriented research.

The University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain hosted a lunch at the beautiful Hart House, welcoming nearly 100 participants. The agenda was co-developed by trainees and PWLE to foster open dialogue and shared learning. We were thrilled to partner with Passerelle, Canada’s national training entity for patient-oriented research, who co-led the afternoon activities.

Yvonne from Passerelle guided a fun and thought-provoking group activity focused on crafting a meaningful “ask”—how to invite PWLE into research respectfully and effectively. Groups shared their draft messages and reflections, sparking laughter, applause, and genuine inspiration.

This event left us hopeful and energized. These trainees get it. They care, they listen, and they’re ready to lead. A heartfelt thank-you to everyone who helped make this a standout moment of CPS 2025.


UTCSP Pain Scientist Trainee Award

The UTCSP is committed to supporting the development of exceptional research trainees who will take future leadership roles in the field of pain science. The objective of this scholarship is to strengthen pain research and talent development through the provision of financial support for research training.  

Application Deadline:  

Applications, in full, are due Friday, May 162025 without exception. Incomplete and/or late applications will not be reviewed. If you require an extension, please request one no later than 48 hours before the deadline by emailing utcsp@utoronto.ca. Extensions will only be considered in rare circumstances, and the length of the extension is at the discretion of UTCSP.   

Value, Scope and Duration: 

Scholarships will be awarded up to a maximum value of $12,500 per scholarship for a period of 1 year across graduate-level (i.e., Master’s or PhD student) and post-doctoral trainees. Graduate students may hold a maximum of two (2) UTCSP-adjudicated scholarships.  

The scholarship will start in September 2025

Please find application details here. 


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Congratulations to our CPS Lottery Award Winners!

🎉 We Have Our CPS ASM Lottery Winners! 🎉

Five lucky trainees have won FREE registration to the Canadian Pain Society Annual Scientific Meeting (CPS ASM)! 🏆

Congratulations to our winners:
Jeremy Steen
Omar Khalil
Ariana Seyed Makki
Shehnaz Lahka
Seyed Assad Karimi

We can’t wait to see you at the conference—get ready for an exciting event filled with learning, networking, and innovation in pain research!


kNOw-PAIN Conference 2025

kNOw-PAIN Conference 2025

March 31, 2025
Great Hall, Western University
9:00am-4:00pm
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Andrew Rice

Click HERE to register


ComSciConCAN Workshop 2025!

ComSciConCAN is Canada's first national science communication workshop for graduate students. This unique professional development program aims to help the next generation of leaders in STEM fields develop the skills needed to communicate their research and ideas to their peers, experts in other fields, policymakers, and the general public.

ComSciConCAN looks to bring the longstanding and successful ComSciCon framework from the United States to Canada. Since its establishment in 2013 by graduate students at Harvard University and MIT, the training opportunities offered by ComSciCon have benefited over 500 graduate students across the United States and Canada. What was once a single annual national meeting has expanded to numerous local ComSciCon workshops across the United States. In collaboration with other alumni and invited experts, former ComSciCon attendees have published over 80 articles written at these workshops, initiated new science communication endeavors, and built lasting professional networks.

To apply: CLICK HERE!


Upcoming Talk - Chris Eccleston

Please join us for this upcoming talk!

Christopher Eccleston, PhD.

https://christophereccleston.co.uk/

 

Chris is Professor of Medical Psychology and Pain Science at the University of Bath in the UK where he directs the Centre for Pain Research which is invested in behavioural science and behavioural medicine in chronic pain.

Chris has pioneered digital therapeutics in chronic pain and is the inventor of a Virtual Reality system for the management of chronic pain. He is particularly interested in service redesign and the introduction of expert systems into chronic pain management.

He has published over 300 peer reviewed scientific publications and is widely cited (web of science h-index of 86). In 2018, the International Association for the Study of Pain recognised the contribution Chris had made to pain research by awarding him the prestigious Ronald Melzack AwardIn 2021 he was awarded the Patrick Wall Medal for contributions to pain science by the UK Faculty of Pain Medicine.

Chris founded and directed the Bath Pain Management Unit from 1994-2008, including the first residential paediatric pain programme. He continues to consult internationally on the development on new services and team training in chronic pain management. From 2009-2019 he was psychology editor for the journal PAIN, and from 2010 to 2020 he was coordinating editor of Pain, Palliative and Supportive Care Cochrane Review Group.

Chris has published three leading books in the field with Oxford University Press. In 2016 he published ‘Embodied: the psychology of physical perception’. In 2018 he co-edited an analysis of investments in pain treatment in 37 European countries, in the book ‘European Pain Management’. And, in 2020, working with Dr Elaine Wainwright, he published a ‘Work and pain: a lifespan development approach’.

He Led the Lancet Delivering transformative action in paediatric pain: a Lancet Child & Adolescent Health Commission (DOI: 10.1016/S2352-4642(20)30277-7)

 

 


QEII Awards Administered by RHSE

In 1998, the Ontario government introduced the Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarships in Science and Technology (QEII-GSST), a merit-based scholarship program targeted specifically toward graduate students in science and technology. The QEII-GSST (formerly known as OGSST) program is designed to encourage excellence in graduate studies in science and technology. The program is supported through funds provided by the Province of Ontario and by funds raised by the University of Toronto from the private sector. The province allocates QEII-GSST awards to universities by specifying the number of awards that each university may offer its students annually.

Official award offers will be made by the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) and communicated to awardees starting July 2025. The same application is used for both the 2025-26 Ontario Graduate Scholarships and QEII-GSST. Please read the application instructions carefully and review the FAQs.

Apply now!

 


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University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain

utcsp@utoronto.ca

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