About

Resources to learn more

• Training highly qualified health research personnel: The Pain in Child Health consortium. Pain Research & Management
• Impact of an interdisciplinary and international research training initiative: the Pain in Child Health program. Pediatric Pain Letter
• Pain in Child Health from 2002 to 2015: The Early Years of an International Research Training Initiative. Canadian Journal of Pain

Funding

• 2002 – 2012: P. McGrath (PI), B. Stevens, A. Finley, K. Craig, C. Johnston, C. von Baeyer. Pain in Child Health: An innovative, transdisciplinary, cross-Canada training consortium. ($1,855,000 total) CIHR Training Grant ($1,800,000) + Mayday Fund. ($55,000).
• 2012 – 2018: B. Stevens (NPI), A. Finley, K. Craig, C. Johnston, C. von Baeyer. Pain in Child Health (PICH) 2: An innovative, transdisciplinary, cross-Canada training consortium. CIHR Strategic Training In Health Research ($1,950,000) + Mayday Fund ($174,978 CAD from 2009-2012 + $184,500 CAD from 2012-2015). 

The PICH community brings together paediatric pain researchers and trainees from across the world. Learn more about the PICH leadership team (Co-Chairs, National Collaborators and Trainee Representatives) below.

Over the years, PICH has been fortunate to have many paediatric pain experts in leadership roles to guide and shape the PICH program.

Dr. Mariana Bueno

Mariana Bueno, RN, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. Her program of research is centred on pain in neonates and infants, focused on (a) generating and synthesizing research evidence, and (b) developing and evaluating dissemination and implementation strategies to improve health outcomes of neonates, infants and their families.

Dr. Bueno is a member of the Executive Committee of the University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain (UTCSP), co-chair of the Knowledge Translation and Networking Committee of the UTCSP, and faculty of the Pain in Child Health (PICH) Global Research Training Initiative.

Dr. Jillian Vinall Miller

Dr. Jillian Vinall Miller is a Developmental Neuroscientist and Tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at the University of Calgary. She leads the Pediatric Anesthesia, Imaging & Neurodevelopmental Science a.k.a. PAINS lab at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. Dr. Miller is committed to exploring the impact of pain on the developing brains of children and adolescents. She also investigates biopsychosocial factors underlying the development of chronic pain in youth, and is working to identify targeted, evidence-based strategies to improve the health and wellbeing of vulnerable populations. Her studies include questionnaires, experimental pain testing, observational tools, neuroimaging, and neurostimulation techniques. Dr. Miller is highly invested in the training of the next generation of clinical scientists. Together, she believes that we have the power to change the experience of pain for youth and their families.

Dr. Katie Birnie

Dr. Kathryn (Katie) Birnie is a Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine, and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary where she leads the Partnering For Pain program (www.partneringforpain.com). She is the Associate Scientific Director of Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP), a national knowledge mobilization network working to improve evidence-based children’s pain management through coordination and collaboration (www.kidsinpain.ca). Dr. Birnie joined Alberta Children’s Hospital as a medical psychologist in 2018, where she continues to provide clinical care through the Vi Riddell Children’s Pain and Rehabilitation Program. Dr. Birnie is a recognized leader in pain research and patient partnership. She was the recipient of the 2022 Early Career Award and 2020 Pain Awareness Award from the Canadian Pain Society and was selected as a 2020-2021 MAYDAY Fellow. Dr. Birnie’s Partnering For Pain research program engages strong partnerships with youth, families, healthcare professionals, decision-makers, and community organizations to improve equitable and effective pain management in children. She has published more than 80 peer-reviewed scientific publications and her work has been shared via CBC News, CTV News, Global News, the Washington Post, Radio Canada International, and The Globe and Mail, among others. Dr. Birnie is a strong advocate for the partnership of patients and families in health research, health care delivery, and health systems design.

Dr. Lindsay Jibb

Lindsay Jibb RN PhD is a Scientist-track Investigator with Child Health Evaluative Sciences at the SickKids Research Institute and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto’s Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing. Dr. Jibb currently holds the Signy Hildur Eaton Chair in Pediatric Nursing Research at SickKids and the University of Toronto. Her research is focused on pursuing better ways to understand and optimize psychosocial health and pain-related outcomes of those affected by childhood cancer—particularly through family research partnerships.

Dr. Meghan McMurtry

C. Meghan McMurtry is an Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of Guelph, director of the Pediatric Pain, Health, and Communication Lab, and a Clinical and Health Psychologist with the Pediatric Chronic Pain Program at McMaster Children’s Hospital. Dr. McMurtry’s research and clinical interests focus on acute and chronic pain, medical procedure-related fear, as well as communication and family influences in these contexts. Dr. McMurtry was the Co-Principal Investigator and an Evidence Lead on the national Help Eliminate Pain in Kids and Adults Team which created two clinical practice guidelines regarding vaccination pain and needle fear management; aspects from the pain management guideline were endorsed for vaccinations worldwide by the World Health Organization (WHO). Recently, Dr. McMurtry was the sole psychologist on the small subcommittee for the WHO’s Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety tasking with creating guidance on immunization stress-related responses. She is also serving as the sole psychologist on the 25 person Guideline Development Group representing 17 countries for the WHO’s Guideline for the Management of Chronic Pain in Children.

Dr. Melanie Noel

Melanie Noel, PhD, RPsych is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Calgary and a Full Member of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute. She directs the Alberta Children’s Pain Research Lab within the Vi Riddell Pain & Rehabilitation Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Canada. Dr. Noel’s expertise is on children’s memories for pain and co-occurring mental health issues and pediatric chronic pain. She published guiding conceptual models of children’s pain memory development, co-occurring PTSD and chronic pain, and fear-avoidance. In recognition of her contributions to advancing knowledge of the psychological aspects of children’s pain, Dr. Noel received early career awards from the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), the Canadian Pain Society, the American Pain Society, the Canadian Psychological Association, and the Society of Pediatric Psychology. She was named Avenue Magazine Calgary’s Top 40 Under 40 (Class of 2017) and a Killam Emerging Research Leader (2020).

Dr. Manon Ranger

Dr. Manon Ranger is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia, a Clinician Scientist at BC Children’s Hospital with the PainCare 360 Program. She is also an Investigator at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute.

Dr. Ranger has extensive clinical expertise in pediatric pain management with a robust research background, marked by collaborations with multidisciplinary clinicians and researchers. She leads a translational research program, bridging preclinical investigations with clinical studies, focusing on preterm neonates undergoing intensive neonatal care to uncover mechanisms of vulnerability to early adversity (stress/pain, related treatments) in relation to brain development. She also investigates methods to mitigate the adverse effects of these events.

More recently, Dr. Ranger is actively participating in global health research and education, with a specific focus on providing training to healthcare providers in low- to middle-income countries (such as Nepal) concerning the management of pain and comfort care for critically ill children (palliative care).

Trainee Representatives

Bukola Mary Ibitoye

Bukola Ibitoye is a doctoral candidate at the School of Nursing, University of British Columbia. She holds an MSc. Advanced Nursing (University of Nottingham, UK) and a BSc. Nursing (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana). Before her doctoral studies, Bukola was a lecturer at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. She is dedicated to improving patient engagement in research, addressing global inequities in pediatric pain research and developing health interventions to improve pediatric care. Her doctoral research focuses on creating a patient-oriented framework to guide the development of a pain toolkit of evidence-based non-pharmacological interventions to improve adolescents’ pain experience during sickle cell crises. This pain toolkit, BoriZafi, will introduce Nigerian adolescents living with sickle cell disease to safe and effective non-pharmacological interventions to manage their pain during sickle cell crises.

Dr. Josep Roman-Juan

Josep Roman-Juan, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calgary, mentored by Dr. Melanie Noel. Dr. Roman-Juan completed his B.Sc. in Psychology at the University of the Balearic Islands in 2017. His interest in the epidemiology of pediatric chronic pain led him to complete his Ph.D. at the University Rovira i Virgili in 2024, under the supervision of Prof. Jordi Miró, where he received a cum laude distinction and the extraordinary doctorate award. His research investigates how migration, trauma, and displacement intersect with pediatric chronic pain, with a focus on informing interventions for children and adolescents whose pain is exacerbated by these factors. Dr. Roman-Juan is supported by the PICH Louise and Alan Edwards Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship and is the recipient of the John J. Bonica Trainee Fellowship from the International Association for the Study of Pain.

Emma Truffyn

Emma Truffyn is a PhD Candidate in the Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology Program at the University of Guelph, supervised by Dr. Meghan McMurtry. As a member of the Pediatric Pain, Health, and Communication lab, her research interests focus on accessible needle fear and needle-related pain management interventions across medical settings to improve outcomes for youth and families. For her dissertation, Emma will evaluate an evidence-informed adolescent e-resource and caregiver guidance manual to help manage needle-related fear, fainting, and pain. Emma’s research has been funded by the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Centre for Research on Pandemic Preparedness and Health Emergencies. She is the recipient of the John Vanderkamp Magisteriate Graduate Medal from the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences at the University of Guelph.

Before joining the PPHC Lab, Emma completed a BA Honours in Psychology (Concentration in Forensic Psychology) at St. Francis Xavier University and an MA in Counselling Psychology at Western University. In addition to her research, Emma is passionate about supporting youth living with pain, as demonstrated through practicum experiences at McMaster Children’s Hospital in the Pediatric Chronic Pain Program. Emma is currently a PICH National Collaborators Trainee Representative.