Our Team
The driving force of the PIUO Study is a large interdisciplinary team working across provinces to provide care and services for children with SNI and PIUO, while collecting data to uncover how families with similar experiences may be best helped in the future. We believe the right approach to managing pain and irritability is many pronged and requires involvement from various caretaker roles. At the same time, families need dedicated and continuous support from the team and the time and effort it takes to systematically investigate the potential sources of PIUO. As such, every team member is important in carrying out our research and fulfilling our goals.
Families who participate in PIUO studies will come to know our team members well as they build relationships throughout study participation. Learn more about the credentials and passions of our lead investigators below, and meet our collaborators from across the country helping to drive our research forward.
Lead Investigators
Hal Siden
Location
Dr. Siden is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia. He is also the Medical Director for Canuck Place Children's Hospice, and Medical Director, Palliative Medicine at BC Children’s Hospital, both located in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Expertise
Dr. Siden has expertise in pediatric palliative care and pain management. He has worked for 20 years with children living with complex conditions and life-threatening diseases. Many of the children Dr. Siden sees battle uncomfortable and painful symptoms as a result of their condition, some of them difficult to explain.
Interest in Pain Management
Dr. Siden has a particular interest in pain assessment and pain management. Pain is not well understood in children who are cognitively normal, and is very poorly understood in children with neurological conditions; finding new treatments and tools for assessing pain is therefore important. Apart from testing the feasibility of the PIUO Pathway, Dr. Siden is interested in new and emerging treatments for pain, and in biological markers of pain in children.
Tim Oberlander
Location
Dr. Tim Oberlander is a physician-scientist whose work “bridges” developmental neurosciences and community child health. He is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia. As a clinician he works as a Developmental Pediatrician and the Medical Director for the Complex Pain Service at BC Children’s Hospital. He has particular expertise in managing pain in children with developmental disabilities.
Expertise
Dr. Oberlander has particular expertise in managing pain in children across a wide range of developmental ages and abilities. His work seeks to advance care using an integrated approach to managing pain that incorporates a developmental perspective and enables a holistic approach to pain management and prevention.
His work is shaped by his formative experiences during his pediatrics residency and fellowship training that laid the foundation for his 25-year career as a clinician-scientist in Child Development and Pain Medicine.
Interest in Pain Management
Dr. Oberlander has a passionate drive to reduce suffering from chronic pain in infants, children and youth. As a researcher, his work focuses on understanding how early life experiences contribute to the early origins of self-regulation, as reflected in stress and pain reactivity. As a clinician, his work is guided by a drive to find ways to determine why some children do well and others do not, and identify novel ways to alleviate pain in all children. This perspective has shaped and sustained his approach to clinical practice and research that combines a child developmental perspective with pain treatment for children and youth.
Collaborators
Gail Andrews
Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia
BC Children’s Research Institute
Bruce Carleton
Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia
BC Children’s Research Institute
Eyal Cohen
Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto
Complex Care, Hospital for Sick Children
Tammie Dewan
Department of Pediatrics, University of Calgary
Alberta Children’s Hospital
Dean Elbe
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of British Columbia
Stephanie Glegg
Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of British Columbia
BC Children’s Research Institute
Vithya Gnanakumar
Departments of Clinical Neurosciences and Pediatrics, University of Calgary
Alberta Children’s Hospital
Julie Hauer
Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
General Pediatrics, Palliative Care, Complex Care, Boston Children’s Hospital
Liisa Holsti
Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia
BC Children’s Research Institute
Sharon Hou
Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia
BC Children’s Research Institute
Julia Orkin
Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto
Complex Care, Hospital for Sick Children
Caroline Sanders
School of Nursing, University of Northern British Columbia
Scott Schwantes
Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota
Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare
Joel Singer
School of Population and Public Health
University of British Columbia
Jen Stinson
University of Toronto
Chronic Pain Program, Hospital for Sick Children
Christina Vadeboncoeur
Department of Pediatrics, University of Ottawa
Palliative Care, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario