Jennifer Stinson

Dr. Jennifer Stinson is the inaugural Mary Jo Haddad Nursing Chair in Child Health and a Senior Scientist in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences research program within the Research Institute at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). Since its inception, Dr. Stinson has been a Nurse Practitioner in the Chronic Pain Program, supporting children and youth with chronic pain, and their families, as part of an interdisciplinary pain team within the Department of Anesthesia and Pain Medicine at SickKids. She is also Co-Director of the SickKids Centre for Pain Management, Research and Education and a Professor at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Her program of research focuses on equitable co-design and development of digital therapeutics for the assessment and management (e.g., pain apps, virtual reality, robots) of pain in youth with chronic conditions, as well as the development of patient-reported outcome measures (i.e., Pediatric PainSCAN to screen kids for nerve pain). Dr. Stinson is an advocate for interprofessional pain education, which is demonstrated in her leadership of innovative training programs (Pain in Child Health and University of Toronto Centre for Study of Pain) and Paediatric Project ECHO which provides virtual mentorship to community health-care providers on the management of complex paediatric patients.

The Work:

Dr. Jennifer Stinson is a globally recognized expert in digital interventions for the assessment and self-management of painful childhood illnesses such as juvenile idiopathic arthritis, sickle cell disease, chronic pain and cancer. She is a Nurse Clinician-Scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, where she serves as Co-Director of the Pain Management, Research and Education Centre (Pain Centre) and as a Nurse Practitioner in the Chronic Pain Program.

As a Senior Scientist in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences research program at SickKids, her research been instrumental in developing and implementing electronic health (e-health) and mobile health (m-health) technologies, such as electronic diaries and internet-based disease management programs, to enhance the assessment and management of pain in paediatric populations. 

Dr. Stinson, who holds the Mary Jo Haddad Nursing Chair in Child Health and is a Professor in the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto, spearheads national and international initiatives to train the next generation of clinicians and researchers in pain management and research. She emphasizes promoting self-management strategies among children and their families, knowledge translation, patient engagement and interprofessional pain education. 

The Impact:

1 in 5 children suffer from chronic pain. Paediatric pain is a complex public health challenge that has often been poorly managed and requires a constantly evolving, multi-modal approach. By working at the intersection of research and clinical care, Dr. Stinson has improved pain management strategies for children and adolescents, enhancing their quality of life and clinical outcomes. She has integrated innovative technologies into clinical practice, facilitating better communication between patients, families and health-care providers, leading to more personalized and effective care. Her significant contributions to interprofessional pain education have also strengthened the capacity of health-care teams to address complex paediatric pain issues. As Co-Director of the SickKids Pain Centre, Dr. Stinson leads the Pain in Child Health (PICH) clinical research training program, which has involved over 400 international clinicians and trainees. PICH alumni and trainees have contributed to more than 700 publications on children’s pain. She is also the founding lead of Paediatric Project ECHO, an Ontario Ministry of Health-funded initiative to train interprofessional community providers in the management of complex paediatric health conditions, such as acute and chronic pain, complex care, palliative care and obesity. 

Looking forward, Dr. Stinson's work has the potential to further revolutionize paediatric pain management by advancing digital health interventions and promoting patient-centered care models, ultimately reducing the burden of chronic pain in children globally.