Interdisciplinary Pain Program at Western University, Canada

Dr. Patricia Morley-Forster is a Professor of Anesthesiology at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, Western University.

In February 2002, she was appointed as the inaugural Earl Russell Chair of Pain Research and Medical Director of the Comprehensive Pain Clinic at St. Joseph's Health Care, London.

Past research in the area of pain has been on the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication for postoperative pain relief and PCA opioids in labour analgesia. From 1990-2000, she was the Director of Obstetric Anesthesia at Western University before undertaking fellowship training in cancer pain management and chronic pain at the Wasser Clinic in Toronto.

She is keenly interested in education in Pain Management and is the Chair of the Royal College Working Group in Pain Medicine, a committee mandated to develop a two-year accredited residency in Pain Medicine.

Current research and clinical interests are neuropathic pain, acute pain management in chronic pain patients and topical analgesics.

Dr. Geoff Bellingham completed residency in anesthesia and perioperative medicine at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, Western University. This was followed by a fellowship in chronic pain at the University of Toronto at the Wasser Pain Management Center. Dr. Bellingham's focus during the fellowship was on the use of ultrasound guidance for interventional pain management in addition to other established interventional pain management techniques including fluoroscopy. Currently, he holds pain clinics in which patients are managed using pharmacotherapy in addition to other resources available such as psychotherapy and physiotherapy. Interventions using ultrasound are integrated into these clinics and separate interventional days are held at the pain clinic's dedicated fluoroscopy suite. Dr. Bellingham is also the present program director of the Chronic Pain Fellowship and is presently working to establish a Royal College accredited Pain Medicine Residency program.
 

Dr. Collin Clarke is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Peri-Operative Medicine, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, Western University.

Following the completion of his anesthesia residency at Schulich Medicine, Collin completed an Interventional Pain Management at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. During his fellowship he focused primarily on the management of Complex Regional Pain as well as fluoroscopically guided interventions for the management of spinal mediated pain syndromes.

Currently he operates a pain clinic out of St. Joseph's hospital that involves both pharmacotherapy as well as a variety of interventions for treatment and management of a variety of pain syndromes.

His research interests focus on functional imaging for the interpretation of pain pathways.

Heather Getty earned her Ph.D. in Adult Clinical Psychology at the University of Windsor.

Her training including her Pre-doctoral Residency at the London Health Sciences Centre has involved work in both traditional mental health treatment settings and in clinical health psychology programs for the treatment of chronic sleep and pain disorders. She was Postdoctoral Fellow in the Pain/Anxiety program at St. Joseph's Health Care 2002-2005 where she researched psychosocial predictors of disability among individuals with chronic pain.

She conducts treatment, research and education at the St. Joseph's Health Care Pain Management Program.

Gloria Gilbert attained a BSc (pt) degree from McGill University and a MSc from Western University. She is secretary and newsletter editor of the Canadian Academy of Pain Management (CAPM, www.canadianapm.com) and is credentialed as a Fellow of both the Canadian and American Academies.

Experience in treating / managing patients with delayed recovery after traumatic neck injuries has led to clinical research on mild traumatic brain injury and post-trauma vision syndrome. Gloria is an active member of NORA (The Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association, www.nora.cc) and the Pain Sciences Division of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association (CPA). Throughout her career, Gloria has been a mentor to her physiotherapy colleagues in the area of chronic pain management. She will be presenting at several physiotherapy conferences as well as the Canadian Pain Society in 2012.

She was recently honoured with a Life Member Award through CPA.

Dr. Dwight Moulin is a Professor in the Departments of Clinical Neurological Sciences and Oncology and the Earl Russell Chair of the Pain Program at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, Western University. He is also the Medical Director of Pain and Symptom Management at the London Regional Cancer Program in London, Ontario.

His research interests include randomized controlled trials to determine the role of opioid analgesics in the management of chronic pain and observational studies to assess the impact of chronic pain in a variety of chronic neurological disorders.

Current research projects include the role of intravenous lidocaine in the treatment of chronic pain and long term outcome of the management of neuropathic pain.

Dr. Moulin was the lead author of national consensus guidelines for the management of neuropathic pain in Canada.

Dr. Warren Nielson is an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Western University. He is also the Clinical Director of the Rheumatology Day Programs at St. Joseph's Health Care, London.

His research interests are in psychological factors associated with chronic pain, particularly in relation to Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteoarthritis and Fibromyalgia Syndrome. He is also a member of the Canadian Scleroderma Research Group and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Pain.

Current studies focus on factors that influence outcomes of multidisciplinary treatment programs and motivational factors in pain self-management.

Dr. Nielson is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association.

Dr. St. Lawrence is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, Western University and a Scientist at the Lawson Health Research Institute.

His research is focussed on developing imaging methods for studying brain function under normal and disease conditions.

His team's primary tools are near-infrared spectroscopy and magnetic resonance imaging since these modalities are non-invasive and extremely safe. As such, they can be adapted to a variety of applications ranging from functional brain mapping to brain monitoring in the neonatal intensive care unit. In terms of pain imaging, Dr. St. Lawrence's team has been a leader in the application of a novel MRI-based blood flow technique for mapping the neural-correlates of pain.

His current research focus is on using this technique to study the longitudinal changes in brain activation associated with chronic pain.