Patrick J. McGrath, OC, PhD, FRSC

Dalhousie University and IWK Health Centre

Dr McGrath is a Killam Professor of Psychology, and Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, and Canada Research Chair at Dalhousie University where he directs the Ph.D. program in clinical psychology. He is the co-director of the new Centre for Research on Early Intervention in Child Health. He makes numerous administrative contributions to Dalhousie University, the IWK Health Centre, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Nova Scotia Department of Health, and the Nova Scotia Health Research Board.

Dr. McGrath is one of the world’s leading researchers on pediatric pain. He has also developed a research program on distance treatment aimed at increasing access of Canadians to psychosocial health care. His research has been recognized by appointment to the Order of Canada (Officer) and election to the Royal Society of Canada. He has received numerous other awards including a Distinguished Scientist Award from the Medical Research Council, the Distinguished Career Award of the Canadian Pain Society, Distinguished Contribution to Psychology award from the Canadian Psychological Association, the Wilbert Fordyce Award for Clinical Research from the American Pain Society and a Bristol Myers Squibb Award for pain research. He will receive the Martin P. Levin Mentorship Award of the Society of Pediatric Psychology, a division of the American Psychological Association, this summer.

He is the Principal Investigator of the CIHR Strategic Training Program on Pain in Child Health and a CIHR Community Alliance for Health Research Grant. He has held numerous other CIHR grants as well as grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and foundations in the US and Canada. He has a large and active research lab at Dalhousie University and the IWK Health Centre. He has published over 280 articles, book chapters, abstracts, comments and editorials, 11 books and 5 internationally translated and distributed patient manuals including Pain, Pain Go Away, a booklet for parents with children who have pain and Making Cancer Less Painful. His latest professional book is Pediatric Pain, Biological and Social Context (2003) published by the International Association for the Study of Pain.

Dr. McGrath was born and raised in Ottawa. He attended the University of Ottawa, the University of Saskatchewan and Queen’s University. Following his Ph.D. he worked at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario for a decade, before coming to Dalhousie University to found the Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology (in co-operation with Acadia, Mount Saint Vincent and Saint Mary’s Universities) in 1989. He is married to Dr. Anita Unruh and they have one child.