TIMOTHY WIDEMAN, BSc, PhD is an Associate Professor in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, a Chercheur听r茅gulier, C.R.I.R. (Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire en R茅adaptation) du Montr茅al m茅tropolitain, and an Associate Member at the Institute of Health Sciences Education.
The overarching goal of Prof. Wideman鈥檚 research is to improve care for people living with pain. He approaches this goal by advancing research related to the following three themes:
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Theme 1: Understanding and targeting biopsychosocial risk factors for prolonged pain and disability.
This line of work aims to explore how different risk and resilience factors influence the recovery trajectory of patients with musculoskeletal pain. Prof. Wideman鈥檚 past work has focused on psychological risk factors, such as pain catastrophizing, fear and resilience. His more recent work has focused on sensitized responses to physical activity engagement, such as increased levels of pain intensity or negative, pain-related thoughts that are specifically provoked by pain-related physical activities.
Sample work related to Theme 1:
- Wideman TH, Asmundson G, Smeets R, Zautra A, Simmonds M, Sullivan M, Haythornthwaite J, Edwards R. Re-thinking the fear avoidance model: Toward a multi-dimensional framework of pain-related disability.听Pain, 2013; 154 (11): 2262-2265. DOI:听.
- Wideman TH, Finan P, Edwards R, Quartana, P, Buenaver L, Haythornthwaite J, Smith M. Increased sensitivity to physical activity among individuals with knee osteoarthritis: Relation to pain outcomes, psychological factors and responses to quantitative sensory testing.听Pain, 2014; 155 (4): 703-711. DOI:听.
- Woznowski-Vu A*, Uddin Z*, Flegg D*, Aternali A, Wickens R, Sullivan M, Sweet S, Skou S, Wideman TH. Comparing novel and existing measures of sensitivity to physical activity among people with chronic musculoskeletal pain: the importance of tailoring activity to pain.听Clinical journal of pain, 2019; 35 (8): 656-667. DOI:听.
Theme 2: Improving entry-level pain education for health professionals through large-scale knowledge translation initiatives
Prof. Wideman鈥檚 research in this area has primarily focused on advancing a national knowledge translation project to improve how physical therapists are trained to manage pain across Canada. Current research priorities focus on developing and implementing a standardized assessment of pain management competency and on exploring strategies for improving how pain education is approached within entry-level training programs.
Sample work related to Theme 2:
- Wideman TH, Miller J*, Bostick G, Thomas A, Bussi猫res A. Advancing pain education in Canadian physiotherapy programs: Results of a consensus-generating workshop.听Physiotherapy Canada, 2018; 70 (1): 24-33. DOI:听.
- Wideman TH, Miller J*, Bostick G, Thomas A, Bussi猫res A, Wickens R. The current state of pain education within Canadian physiotherapy programs: a national survey of pain educators.听Disability and rehabilitation, 2020; 42 (9): 1332-1338. DOI:听.
Theme 3: Understanding and addressing pain-related suffering.
This theme focuses on advancing theoretical and empirical research on suffering among people living with pain. The Multi-modal Assessment of Pain (MAP) model helped lay a conceptual foundation for this work by creating a pragmatic framework for further integrating subjectivity within assessment and clinical care. More recent work has focused on synthesizing existing literature on pain-related suffering and collecting qualitative data to help fill existing gaps in evidence.
- Wideman TH, Edwards R, Walton D, Martel M, Hudon A, Seminowicz D. The multi-modal assessment model of pain: A novel framework for further integrating the subjective pain experience within research and practice.听Clinical journal of pain,听2019; 35 (3): 212-221. DOI:听.
- Stilwell P, Hudon A, Meldrum K, Pag茅 MG, Wideman TH. What is Pain-Related Suffering? Conceptual Critiques, Key Attributes, and Outstanding Questions.听The Journal of Pain, 2022; 23 (5): 729-738. DOI:听.
- Stilwell P, Hudon A, Meldrum K, Pag茅 MG, McIntyre V, Wideman TH. Moving closer to an inclusive definition of pain-related suffering and targeted care.听The Journal of Pain, 2023;听24(3), 552鈥�553. DOI:听
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email: timothyhoward.wideman [at] mcgill.ca听