Meghan McMurtry

Meghan McMurtry is a Professor in Psychology at the University of Guelph, director of the Pediatric Pain, Health, and Communication Lab, and a Clinical and Health Psychologist with the Pediatric Chronic Pain Program at McMaster Children's Hospital. She also holds adjunct appointments as an Adjunct Research Professor in Paediatrics at Western University and an Associate Scientist at the Children's Health Research Institute. Dr. McMurtry serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor (Adjunct) in the Department of Anesthesia at McMaster University.

Dr. McMurtry completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS and her psychology residency at Brown University in Providence, RI in 2010. Her research broadly focuses on pain (both acute and chronic) and fear in children and adolescents, with particular emphasis on adult-child interactions during medical procedures, measurement and intervention for child fear and pain during needle procedures, family context and correlates of needle fear, psychosocial factors in pediatric chronic pain, and pain-related training needs for health care professionals and other caregivers.

Analysis of Dr. McMurtry's recent publications reveals a strong focus on pediatric pain management, particularly related to vaccination procedures and needle fear. Her work prominently features the CARD (Comfort Ask Relax Distract) framework, which has been endorsed by the World Health Organization. She has conducted extensive research on parent-child interactions during painful medical procedures, interventions for chronic pain management, and adaptations for special populations including children with autism and developmental disabilities.

• Early Career Award, Health Psychology and Behavioural Medicine, Canadian Psychological Association 2020
• CSAHS Research Excellence Award, 2017-2018
• Psychology Department Teaching Award, 2015
• Canadian Psychological Association President's New Researcher Award 2012
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research Fellowship and Bisby prize (declined) 2010
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research Canada Graduate Scholarships Doctoral Research Award 2006

Dr. McMurtry has been instrumental in developing evidence-based guidelines for pain management, particularly as Co-Principal Investigator and Evidence Lead on the national Help Eliminate Pain in Kids and Adults Team (HELPinKids&Adults), which created clinical practice guidelines for vaccination pain and needle fear management endorsed by the WHO. She served as the sole psychologist on the WHO's Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety and the Guideline Development Group for the Management of Chronic Pain in Children. Her research has been funded by major organizations including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Public Health Agency of Canada, and Genome Canada.

Dr. McMurtry directs the Pediatric Pain, Health and Communication Lab (PPHC), which focuses on children's experience of pain and parent behavior during medical procedures. The lab's work aims to develop interventions to make painful medical experiences less distressing for children, recognizing that unmanaged pain can lead to serious short- and long-term consequences including avoidance of medical care in adulthood and development of needle phobias.