Judy Watt-Watson RN, PhD

Access to appropriate pain management is a human right. To this end, interprofessional pain education helps to improve collaboration and the quality of health outcomes for patients.

Dr. Judy Watt-Watson is a pioneer in the study of pain. Her research has focused on establishing pain prevalence and related risk factors, particularly for cardiac surgical patients, and interventions involving health professionals and patients. She led the campaign to include pain in the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation Standards.

At U of T Nursing, Dr. Watt-Watson was the inaugural Executive Director of the Centre for Professional Development (formerly named the Centre for Advanced Studies in Professional Practice). She was the inaugural Chair of the U of T Centre for the Study of Pain’s interfaculty pain curriculum, which involves six health-science faculties.

A recipient of the Distinguished Career Award from the Canadian Pain Society, The U of T Award of Excellence Faculty Award and numerous other awards, Dr. Watt-Watson is Past-President of the Canadian Pain Society and for many years was a member of the Executive Committee of the U of T Centre for the Study of Pain. Internationally, she was a member of the Pain Education Initiatives Working Group of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), as well as Chair of its subgroup on interprofessional pain education. She was on the IASP Task Force Executive for the IASP 2018 Global Year for Excellence in Pain Education and is a current member of the IASP Pain Education Working Group.

Dr. Watt-Watson is a Faculty Associate at University Health Network and an Associate Scientific Staff of the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. She is also a Senior Fellow at U of T’s Massey College.