Karen Davis

Karen Davis is a senior scientist at the Krembil Brain Institute at the University Health Network and a professor in Department of Surgery and Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto. She obtained her PhD in Physiology at the University of Toronto and was a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. Over the last 30 years, Dr. Davis has pioneered electrophysiological and brain imaging approaches to investigate mechanisms underlying pain, that has led to over 200 publications that have been cited over 20,000 times. Her current focus uses brain imaging and psychophysics to delineate brain plasticity associated with chronic pain, and individual factors that contribute to pain sensitivity and chronic pain treatment outcomes. Her concept of a “dynamic pain connectome” is being used to develop personalized approaches to pain management. Dr. Davis is also active in neuroethics; created a graduate student oath (published in Science), chaired the IASP presidential task force on the use brain imaging to diagnosis pain (published in Nature Reviews Neurology), and co-edited the book Pain Neuroethics and Bioethics. Dr. Davis is a former IASP councilor and currently serves on the Canadian Institute of Health Research Institute Advisory Board, and editorial boards of Pain, PainReports, eNeuro, and the Canadian Journal of Pain. She was a Mayday Fellow, has been inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and the Royal Society of Canada. She has received research, career and mentorship awards including the CPS Mentorship Award and CPS Distinguished Career Award.   Karen currently serves as President of the Canadian Pain Society.