Katrina Isobel Epino

Dr Kathrina Epino completed her Anesthesiology residency training at the Philippine General Hospital. After which she completed pain medicine fellow positions at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Concord Repatriation General Hospital in Sydney Australia. She was given the title Clinical Lecturer at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead Clinical School, University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine for her teaching contributions to University of Sydney medical students as a fellow. She is currently a Clinical Associate Professor and is the Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine at the Department of Anesthesiology in the University of the Philippines - Philippine General Hospital. She helped with the division’s revitalization and at the same time adaptation to the SARSCOV2 pandemic. Most of her projects during the height of the SARSCOV2 pandemic targeted raising awareness and improving pain management in children in a mixed adult and pediatric population hospital. She is specifically involved in establishing pain management and procedural analgesia guidelines in collaboration with the hospital burn center consultants and staff. She is also part of a project in collaboration with the UP-PGH Department of Pediatrics and St Jude Global Alliance that aims to reduce needle prick pain using a combination of pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic approaches as well as to improve patient and parent satisfaction and decrease hospital staff stress and anxiety. As part of the larger Department of Anesthesiology, she is also involved in anesthesia residents training as well as in pain education for medical students and nurses. Her anesthesia specific interests include ERAS, perioperative medicine, and simulation. On the other side of Metro Manila, she heads the Section of Pediatric Pain within the Division of Pediatric Anesthesia at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center. Here, she takes on a slightly different role of starting an outpatient pediatric pain clinic and working towards establishing a pediatric pain fellowship training. Apart from clinical and education roles, she is also a member of the University of the Philippines Manila Technical Working Group on Medicinal Cannabis as well as a part of the pool of experts for the scientific review council of the local National Institute of Health. Her special interests lie in burn pain management and procedural analgesia as well as cancer pain management and palliative care in children. While in adults, her interests lie in ERAS and chronic pain in endometriosis and amongst healthcare workers.