Engaging With Our Patient Partners in a Meaningful Way to Enhance Chronic Pain Research and Academia – Part 1: A Podcast with Emeralda Burke

Senior Manager’s note: Emeralda Burke is a health researcher, patient advocate, and a person with lived experience. In 2013, she moved from Ireland to Toronto, Canada, after completing a degree in medicinal chemistry. One year later, she was struck as a pedestrian by a stolen car and now lives with chronic pain. She quickly realized how prevalent, underfunded, and underserviced chronic pain can be in Canada. Emeralda shifted to pain research with a special interest in patient education, self-management, and program evaluation. Her advocacy work focuses on raising the public’s awareness of chronic pain, using her voice to illuminate gaps in health services. She shares her experience with healthcare providers in the hopes of improving the healthcare system. She is currently a researcher at the Toronto Academic Pain Medicine Institute, and is completing her master’s degree in health evaluation.

Here, Emeralda speaks with PRF Correspondent Bhushan Thakkar, a PhD student at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, US. They discuss Emeralda’s lived experiences with pain, her role as a pain researcher and patient partner, her motivations for working as a patient advocate, and how pain scientists and researchers can meaningfully engage with patient partners in research and academia. Additionally, Emeralda talks about the importance of using a non-stigmatizing and non-judgmental approach to talk about chronic pain.