Dr. Davies completed her MD (McMaster 1993) and Pediatrics residency (University of Alberta, 1997). She completed a McEachern Fellowship (Canadian Cancer Society) in pediatric palliative medicine (University of Alberta, Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney Australia) in 1999. She returned to University of Alberta where she founded a pediatric palliative care program at the Stollery Children’s Hospital, Edmonton.
She completed a MA (Health Care Ethics and Law) University of Manchester UK, Distance Education 2011. She is a past Chair of the Bioethics Committee, Canadian Paediatric Society.
She moved to University of Ottawa in 2018 where she continues her work in pediatric palliative care at Roger Neilson House and CHEO. Research interests include decision making for seriously ill children, and medications for symptom management.
Research Projects
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Peripherally acting μ-opioid receptor antagonists for treatment of opioid-induced constipation in children
14/04/2021
This study is the largest to date to evaluate efficacy and safety of PAMORAs in children. Future studies should be prospective and include larger numbers of patients with critical illness and postoperative OIC as indications for treatment.
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Medical Assistance in Dying: A Paediatric Perspective
12/04/2018
As of September 2017, both the Federal Act and the Quebec Act clearly prohibit non-voluntary euthanasia for all patients. However, given the human rights framework advanced in Carter v. Canada, the parents of a dying and/or severely disabled child who is deemed to be suffering may, in the near future, be looking to the courts to support a right to end their child’s life. Decision-making for treatment of never-competent children is based on the ‘best interest standard’: choosing among options that reasonable persons, acting in good faith on another’s behalf, would consider acceptable in similar circumstances