Dr. Furlan graduated in Medicine from the Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil, where she also finished her residency in Physiatry, also known as Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R).

She immigrated to Canada in 1997 and obtained her PhD in Clinical Epidemiology from the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto

In 2008 she finished a clinical fellowship at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and started as an Assistant Professor of Medicine, in the Division of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Department of Medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.

She is also a Scientist at the Institute for Work & Health, in Toronto, and Senior Scientist at KITE, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network.

She attends patients with chronic pain at the Toronto Academic Pain Medicine Institute (TAPMI).

Dr. Furlan in the NEWS

In 2023

In 2019 she started a YouTube channel for patients with chronic pain. In June 2021 her channel reached 100,000 subscribers.

She is married and the mother of two. She is a Sunday School teacher at the Presbyterian Church of Canada.

Her hobbies include playing piano, gardening, cooking and travelling. Her favourite music styles are classical and gospel music. She speaks Portuguese and English fluently and she is learning French.

Her goal with the YouTube channel is to help 1,000,000 people with chronic pain live to their best ability. She uses a holistic pain management approach, which means that the focus is on the person that has pain, where each person is unique and has a body, mind and spirit.

Awards and Prizes

Publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals (2022)

Opioid safety recommendations in adult palliative medicine: a North American Delphi expert consensus (2022) BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care

Conducting a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis in Rehabilitation (2022) Am J Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Medical Cannabis Use and Inflammatory Cytokines and Chemokines Among Adult Chronic Pain Patients (2022) Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research

Palliative care for people who use drugs during communicable disease epidemics and pandemics: A scoping review on access, policies, and programs and guidelines (2022) Palliative Medicine

Opioid Utilization and Management in the Setting of Stewardship During Inpatient Rehab Care (2022). Drug, Healthcare and Patient Safety

Impact of persistent pain symptoms on work absence, health status and employment 18 months following disabling work-related injury or illness. (2022). Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

From hands-on to remote: Moderators of response to a novel self-management telehealth programme during the COVID-19 pandemic. (2022) European Journal of Pain.

Primary Care Physicians' Learning Needs in Returning Ill or Injured Workers to Work. A Scoping Review. (2022) Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation.

Patient contracts for chronic medical conditions: Scoping review. (2022) Canadian Family Physician

Development and testing of an opioid tapering self-management intervention for chronic pain: I-WOTCH. (2022). BMJ Open

Chronic Pain and Opioid Prescribing: Three Ways for Navigating Complexity at the Clinical‒Population Health Interface. (2022) American Journal of Public Health.

Non-operative treatment for lumbar spinal stenosis with neurogenic claudication: an updated systematic review. (2022) BMJ Open

Publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals (2021)

 

Conducting a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis in Rehabilitation. Am J Phys Med Rehab (2021)

Palliative care for people who use substances during communicable disease epidemics and pandemics: a scoping review protocol. BMJ Open (2021)

An Analysis of the #CovidPain Tweet Chat During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020. Cureus (2021)

Development and Initial Evaluation of Psychometric Properties of a Pain Competence Assessment Tool (PCAT). The Journal of Pain (2021)

Opioid safety recommendations in adult palliative medicine: a North American Delphi expert consensus. BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care (2021)

Assessment tools for problematic opioid use in palliative care: A scoping review. Palliative Medicine (2021)

Patterns and correlates of workplace and non-workplace cannabis use among Canadian workers before the legalization of non-medical cannabis. Drug and Alcohol Dependence (2021)

Publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals (2020)

 

Acupuncture for chronic nonspecific low back pain. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2020)

Protocol for an economic analysis of the randomised controlled trial of Improving the Well-being of people with Opioid Treated CHronic pain: I-WOTCH Study. BMJ Open (2020)

Self-Reported Practices in Opioid Management of Chronic Noncancer Pain: An Updated Survey of Canadian Family Physicians. Journal of Clinical Medicine (2020)

Advanced vehicle technologies and road safety: A scoping review of the evidence. Accident Analysis and Prevention (2020)

The 22nd Anniversary of the Cochrane Back and Neck Group. Spine (2020)

Warning from Canada: Latin America, South Africa and India may face an opioid epidemic in the coming years. Journal of Global Health (2020)

Factors associated with early opioid dispensing compared with NSAID and muscle relaxant dispensing after a work-related low back injury. Occupational and Environmental Medicine (2020)

Health care providers' experiences and perceptions participating in a chronic pain telementoring education program: a qualitative study. Canadian Journal of Pain (2020)

Canadian guidelines on opioid use disorder among older adults. Canadian Geriatrics Journal (2020)

Promoting an interprofessional approach to chronic pain management in primary care using Project ECHO. Journal of Interprofessional Care (2020)

Identifying appropriate outcomes to help evaluate the impact of the Canadian Guideline for Safe and Effective Use of Opioids for Non-Cancer Pain. BMC Anesthesiology (2020)

Improving opioid guideline adherence: evaluation of a multifaceted, theory-informed pilot intervention for family physicians. BMJ Open (2020)

Speaker

Dr. Furlan frequently speaks at local, national and international scientific conferences on the following topics:

  • Causes of Chronic Pain

  • The Opioid Crisis

  • Opioid Tapering

  • Myofascial Pain Syndrome

  • Low Back Pain

  • Systematic Reviews, Meta-Analyses

  • Clinical Practice Guidelines

  • Cochrane Reviews

  • Project ECHO

  • Knowledge Translation and Dissemination

  • Social Media in Medicine