Musculoskeletal conditions and chronic pain among working patients

Dr. Andrea Furlan is a scientist at the Institute for Work & Health and a physician and senior scientist at the KITE Research Institute at University Health Network. She is also an associate professor in the Department of Medicine’s Division of Physiatry at the University of Toronto.

Furlan is an expert in rehabilitation medicine, chronic pain, systematic reviews, clinical practice guidelines, opioid treatments, cannabis and cannabinoids, and the implementation and evaluation of ECHO projects. Furlan was the first person to bring an ECHO project to Canada in 2014, on chronic pain and opioid stewardship. She has since helped many groups in Ontario start ECHO projects for conditions such as rheumatology, liver disease, epilepsy, mental health, children’s health, care of the elderly and wounds.

Furlan completed her residency in physiatry at the University of São Paulo in Brazil and obtained a PhD in clinical epidemiology from the University of Toronto. She completed a two-year clinical fellowship in physiatry at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. Furlan received the Canadian Pain Society’s Excellence in Pain Mentorship Award in 2021 and the Pain Excellence Award from the Pain Society of Alberta in 2020.

For more than 20 years, Lynn Cooper has been a national pain community leader, spokesperson, advocate, and educator, working toward improving pain management for Canadians. As a person with lived experience in workplace injury and persistent pain, Lynn advocates for the voices and perspectives of people with pain to be imbedded in research, policy discussions, and initiatives that will create solutions for more effective and compassionate pain care. She served as a voting member of the 2017 Canadian Opioid Guidelines and on Health Canada’s scientific review panels regarding opioid prescribing. Lynn currently participates on research teams that (1) investigate the efficacy of pain education methods for patients and health professionals, (2) study ways to improve pain care delivery systems, (3) develop online pain education modules for patients, and (4) develop clinical practice guidelines for opioid and cannabis prescribing for chronic pain. Lynn is the Director of Research and Education for the Canadian Injured Workers Alliance. In this capacity she leads projects that connect pain management and education within stay at work/return to work planning and identify the impacts of COVID 19 on injured workers. Lynn served on the SPOR Chronic Pain Network steering committee.