Dr. Tracy Cupido has been a member of the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine for the past four years and came to the field from a variety of different backgrounds. “I have a BA in Kinesiology from the University of Western Ontario. I then travelled to the U.S. to attend Midwestern University’s Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. After earning my Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.), I returned to Kingston to start my residency in Family Medicine at Queen’s before soon switching to the Anesthesiology program here,” she shares. “I came with an acute awareness that chronic pain was a poorly understood condition and sought out like-minded people with an interest in chronic pain. I completed a fellowship at McGill University in Perioperative Spine Medicine where I learned about acute, chronic and palliative pain management from some of Canada’s giants in pain medicine and anesthesia.”
Dr. Cupido’s main areas of clinical, education and research work lie in the management of chronic pain. “I am the director of the acute pain management service at Kingston Health Sciences Centre where I teach residents, fellows and medical students about pain at all stages of life,” she explains. Her days begin with an early start and a mix of time spent caring for patients in the operating room and in the chronic pain clinic. “I’d like to debunk the idea that chronic pain is a diagnosis. It is not! It is merely a description. We continually strive to pinpoint the source of pain and to be specific with our treatment modalities,” she says.
In the future, Dr. Cupido hopes collaborations across disciplines can be further mined. “I hope we continue to expand collaborations across disciplines, allied healthcare workers and basic scientists to deliver more nuanced care to the pain population,” she says. And in that vein, Dr. Cupido is working on a novel treatment for complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) that she is currently studying. “Additionally, we have exciting prospects for the management of fibromyalgia on the horizon.”
Dr. Cupido shares that being a SEAMO member has been a benefit to her in the education of learners. “SEAMO has provided an avenue to teach pain management to the broader Queen’s community,” she says.
When Dr. Cupido is not in the operating room or the clinic, she can be found at home with her two daughters and family poodle, or singing in a choir!