The MSSU is excited to announce Trudy Flynn as the new Patient/Public Partner Council co-chair. Along with our MSSU Patient Engagement Science Lead, Robin Urquhart, our co-chairs will lead the MSSU Patient/Public Partner Council forward as we continue to support patient engagement.
Trudy’s first experience with patient engagement was in 2014 as part of the steering committee for the CIHR – James Lind Alliance Adult Fibromyalgia Priority Setting Partnership. Trudy was a Patient Representative at the Canadian Pain Summit in Toronto in September 2014, where she realized knowledge translation and patient engagement were issues she was interested in pursuing. A retired nurse from Nova Scotia, Trudy was diagnosed with fibromayalgia 30 years ago and was part of a clinical trial in 2009 through Nova Scotia Pain Clinic.
In October 2014, Trudy became a Research Ambassador, later changed to Patient Engagement Research Ambassador (PERA) for CIHR – IMHA. In 2017, Trudy coauthored a paper published in the Canadian Journal of Pain, called “A paradigm change to inform Fibromyalgia research priorities by engaging patients and health care professions”. Working with the CIHR Trudy heard about the SPOR Support Units. Having up to this point only worked at a National level, Trudy decided it would be nice to be involved in patient engagement in her own province so in 2019 Trudy joined the Maritime SPOR Support Unit (MSSU).
In 2021 Trudy became the chair of the newly formed Fibromyalgia Association Canada, a member of the MSSU Patient/Public Partner Council and one of the Patient/Public Partners with the MSSU Scientific Lead Committee. Trudy’s main focus on research involves dementia, Alzheimer’s, long term care, fibromyalgia, chronic pain and patient engagement. In 2022 Trudy became a Patient/Public Partner with the MSSU’s Equity Diversity Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) Working Group.
Trudy has enjoyed being a Patient/Public Partner in many research projects since joining the MSSU. And when she is not advocating, Trudy loves to geocache and run.