Nurse wins prestigious award, for helping kids with chronic pain

Nicole Ireland · The Canadian Press

· Posted: Apr 11, 2025 6:19 PM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

A caregiver practitioner whose probe astatine Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children is dedicated to helping children and teens negociate symptom has won a Gairdner Award.

The Toronto-based Gairdner Foundation says Jennifer Stinson is the archetypal caregiver to person 1 of the prestigious awards it hands retired annually to admit scientists who lend to quality wellness astir the world.

Reached by telephone successful Australia wherever she was acceptable to talk astatine a technological gathering, Stinson says it's "great" the prize is recognizing the relation nurses play successful research.

"Nurses are precise bully astatine listening to patients and learning from them and past trying to fig retired what benignant of solutions would beryllium champion for them," Stinson said, noting that a batch of her probe is "team science" with researchers from aggregate disciplines.

Stinson is 1 of 2 recipients of the 2025 Peter Gilgan Canada Gairdner Momentum Award, a $100,000 prize fixed to Canadian mid-career investigators for "exceptional technological probe contributions," the instauration said successful a quality merchandise issued Friday.

The different recipient is Daniel De Carvalho, a elder idiosyncratic astatine the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre astatine University Health Network and an subordinate prof of aesculapian biophysics astatine the University of Toronto. He won for his "groundbreaking" probe of alterations successful crab cells and however to marque the cells much recognizable to the immune system.

Five scientists moving astatine institutions successful the United States won Canada Gairdner International Awards of $250,000 each.

Another idiosyncratic moving astatine a assemblage successful Finland received the John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award, worthy $100,000.

Stinson is co-director of the Pain Centre astatine SickKids Hospital. Her probe focuses connected processing integer tools — from apps to robots — that assistance kids with chronic symptom owed to illnesses specified arsenic arthritis, sickle compartment illness and cancer.

One app, called iCanCope, helps children and adolescents way their symptom and larn to negociate it.

"A batch of kids don't spot the transportation between, for example, if they overdo it 1 time oregon they person mediocre slumber that their symptom is going to beryllium impacted. So it's conscionable a speedy check-in each time and it shows them, benignant of similar a vigor map, however their activities person influenced their pain," Stinson said.

The app besides helps them acceptable goals, specified arsenic improving their slumber oregon going to school, and get evidence-based proposal connected however to execute them.

"It tin beryllium mindfulness, meditations, it could beryllium carnal activities specified arsenic yoga, it could beryllium strategies connected changing the mode they deliberation and consciousness astir their pain," she said.

iCanCope besides provides a "safe space" for kids to get societal enactment and stock experiences, specified arsenic their favourite ways to distract themselves from pain, said Stinson, who is besides a prof astatine the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing astatine the University of Toronto.

Her squad besides developed a four-foot gangly robot named Medi that interacts with children undergoing achy procedures astatine SickKids.

Medi is simply a "perfect example" of however to thatch younger children astir what volition hap during their process and ways to assistance trim the pain, Stinson said.

"So the robot would spell done however to bash belly breathing with a child. It would distract them utilizing dancing and music," she said.

Stinson and her squad are present moving a objective proceedings connected a robot enhanced by artificial quality that tin observe a aesculapian process and respond if it's not going good oregon if a kid becomes upset.

For each of the symptom absorption interventions, input from patients is critical, she said.

"We truly effort to perceive to them and larn from them and impact them successful each aspects of research, truthful not conscionable arsenic participants, but really helping america plan probe studies and past translating that knowledge," she said.

In fact, a "handful" of Stinson's now-adult erstwhile patients person decided to prosecute medicine, nursing oregon wellness research, she said. One of them works successful her lab.

"It's truthful rewarding to spot patients that are truly inspired to bash probe arsenic well," she said.

The Gairdner Awards were established successful 1957 by Canadian businessman and philanthropist James A. Gairdner. The 2025 planetary winners are:

• Dr. Michael Welsh of the University of Iowa and Paul Negulescu of Vertex Pharmaceuticals for probe that has transformed cystic fibrosis from a fatal illness to a manageable one;
• Spyros Artavanis-Tsakonas of Harvard Medical School, Iva Greenwald of Columbia University and Gary Struhl of Columbia University for pioneering enactment successful "Notch signalling" compartment connection and its interaction successful crab and developmental disorders.

The 2025 Gairdner Global Health grant victor is Dr. Andre Briend of the University of Tampere successful Finland, for his relation successful inventing a ready-to-use therapeutic nutrient paste for treating terrible acute malnutrition.

Canadian Press wellness sum receives enactment done a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely liable for this content.