UBC Math Bio Seminar: Reginald L. McGee

Sickle cell pain presents in acute episodes in pediatric patients, as opposed to the chronic pain observed in adults. The episodic nature of pain events in pediatric patients necessitates a distinct approach from what has been used to mathematically model pain severity levels in adults. Statistical studies have examined interactions between measurements on sleep --- like sleep quality and sleep efficiency --- and pain levels in pediatric populations, and we propose a framework for modeling pediatric pain dynamics that incorporates the effects of patient survey data over varying time windows. We hypothesize that cumulative effects of these measurements will be more important than daily measurements in both replicating pain severity levels and determining markers of a pain episode. The ability to identify markers preceding the onset of a pain episode will be crucial in improving patient quality of life. We present work towards developing this modeling framework and a parameterization strategy to fit aggregate data for subpopulations of patients defined by age and course of treatment.