Dr. Katie Birnie is a Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at the University of Calgary where she leads the Partnering For Pain program. She is the Assistant Scientific Director of Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP), a national knowledge mobilization network, and provides clinical care at Alberta Children’s Hospital.

Kaytlin Constantin
PhD Candidate in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Pediatric Pain, Health and Communication Lab at the University of Guelph

Kaytlin Constantin works alongside with Dr. Meghan McMurtry at the University of Guelph. Her research has examined the biopsychosocial contributors to parent and child experiences during pediatric acute pain, including needle-related pain. She has received several scholarships and her work has been disseminated locally, nationally and internationally through conference presentations, peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and webinars. She is passionate about improving needle-related experiences for families in addition to making services more accessible. To that end, she has been involved in various research and clinical activities related to the assessment and management of needle-related fears, including co-developing and facilitating a virtual 5-week evidence-based group intervention to support families experiencing high levels of needle fear.

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). She is a member of the CARDTM scientific team; the CARD framework makes the pain management guideline actionable. Dr. McMurtry was the sole psychologist on the small subcommittee for the WHO’s Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety tasked with creating guidance on immunization stress-related responses. She also recently served 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.