Holly Stevens

Holly Stevens is a Clinical Research Associate in the Department of Paediatric Emergency Medicine at the Children’s Hospital – London Health Sciences Centre. Holly first joined the department as a research assistant under Dr. Naveen Poonai over five and a half years ago while she was an undergraduate psychology student at Western University. She has been working for Dr. Poonai since and has been able to obtain a large amount of experience in the area of paediatric pain. Most notably, she received publication for her significant involvement in a study focused on children presenting to the emergency department with abdominal pain. This study compared Hyoscine butylbromide (Buscopan) versus acetaminophen for the treatment of nonspecific abdominal pain, a type of abdominal pain that would often go untreated. In addition, Holly was intimately involved in a study using light sedation for laceration repair (Dose-Finding) in order to reduce distress in children undergoing suture repair. Dose-finding is currently in manuscript preparation. Her experience with both the Buscopan and Dose-Finding trials provided greater insight into the importance of addressing paediatric pain and the impact it can have on the patient. This experience further motivates her to understanding the role that chronic pain has on a child’s mental wellbeing.