Plenary Session 2

Wednesday, April 14, 2027
1:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Arena 1B

Speaker

Agenda Item Image
Dr Jennifer Stinson
Senior Scientist
The Hospital for Sick Children

Designing the Future of Pediatric Pain Care Using Digital Therapeutics

1:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Biography

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 Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Her global expertise in 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 was recognized by the Canada Gairdner 2025 Peter Gilgan Momentum Award. Dr. Stinson is also an advocate for interprofessional pain education, which is demonstrated in her leadership of innovative training programs (Pain in Child Health) and Paediatric Project ECHO which provides virtual mentorship to community health-care providers on the management of complex paediatric patients. Designing the Future of Pediatric Pain Care Using Digital Therapeutics In this plenary lecture, Dr. Jennifer Stinson (2025 Canada Gairdner Laureate) will offer a high-level overview of the evolution of digital therapeutics, situating pediatric pain within broader advances in digital health. Drawing on exemplars from her work, Dr. Stinson will illustrate how co-design with children, youth, and families has informed the development of engaging, equitable, and clinically relevant digital pain interventions. The lecture will conclude with a forward-looking discussion of the challenges that must be addressed to ensure the sustainable implementation and real-world impact of digital therapeutics for pediatric pain, offering insights into future directions for the field.
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