The lab investigates physiological markers for a variety of painconditions in three modalities: Blood-borne, Imaging, and Neurophysiology
Healthy nervous and musculoskeletal systems are critical determinants for performing activities of daily living. Our goal is to understand the interaction and crosstalk between these two systems. Our research examines structure, function, and physiology changes in neural, skeletal muscle and connective tissues due to muscle disuse, injury and chronic pain.
Central sensitization (CSens) describes a state of neuronal hyper-excitability in the central nervous system. CSens is associated with pain syndromes including fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, and myofascial pain syndrome.
CSens negatively impacts mobility and quality of life. Unfortunately, mechanisms that determine the maladaptive neuroplasticity that underpins CSens are poorly understood. We aim to better understand CSens in order to guide the development of future therapies and treatments.
We are implementing a new comprehensive artificial intelligence (AI)-integrated database that will provide a standardized method to facilitate high-quality data collection of a large cohort of chronic pain patients.
The database will:
1. Provide accelerated access to well-characterized datasets that can assist physicians to reach accurate diagnosis and guide personalized treatment.
2. Improve treatment monitoring and adjustment.
3. Create the infrastructure for standardized data collection on a large cohort of patients with diverse chronic pain disorders.
4. Capture large amounts of diverse annotated pain-related data suitable for AI-based analysis of patient characteristics in order to fuel innovation and quality improvement programs.
5. Facilitate the collection of data on investigations into potential objective biomarkers for chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia and myofascial pain.
Co-morbid pain
We seek to understand why patients develop chronic pain because of acute trauma (e.g., whiplash, concussion, surgery). Another one of our aims is to understand pain in patients who have osteoarthritis and may require joint replacement surgery. We are partnering with global health leaders, the University of Toronto, Toronto Western Hospital, and St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton to characterize ‘patient phenotypes’ among total knee replacement candidates, including identifying potential surgery non-responders.
Practical Outcomes
Through funding support from the Workplace Safety &Insurance Board (WSIB) we are evaluating the biopsychosocial and work-context factors that contribute to successful return to work. Our aim is to build a patient assessment model that can guide family physician decision-making on patient return to work readiness and support physician treatment/referral decisions.
Mechanisms and therapies
We aim to understand the biological mechanisms that underpinskeletal muscle adaptation during the recovery process after disuse and/orinjury. Understanding these mechanisms will help the development of more effectivetherapeutic strategies to aid recovery.
