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Summary
You probably know someone who dislikes going to the doctors- maybe it’s your child, parent, friend, or even yourself. A bad experience getting a shot or blood draw can have a long lasting impact on your willingness to get future shots. In fact, a recent study showed that if fear of needles was absent, we could remove 11.5% of all instances of vaccine hesitancy.
Join us today for a conversation with pediatric medical illness and trauma specialist, Dr. Jody Thomas, about why 1 in 4 adults have a fear of needles and what we can do about it. Jody will explain why proper pain management is so important for both children and adults, how to talk to someone who may be unwilling to get a shot, and share tips on how to make your next shot a much more pleasant experience.
More about Dr. Jody Thomas
Dr. Jody Thomas is a licensed clinical psychologist, and specialist in pediatric medical illness and trauma. A well-known expert in pediatric pain who teaches internationally on the subject, she is also a founder and the former Clinical Director of the Packard Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation Center at Stanford, and a former Assistant Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Though she now lives in Denver, CO, she still serves as Adjunct Faculty for Stanford, providing supervision and teaching. As a consultant for the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, she directs projects on the integration and innovation of pain management using tech-based intervention. Her passion for bringing together the power of medical science, technology and design to transform the way we think about kids and pain led her to her current focus but it’s her role as a mom of two that solidified her path in creating the Meg Foundation. Dr. Thomas was recently chosen for the prestigious MayDay Fellowship, which supports pain experts in assuming public leadership roles to help end human suffering from pain through public discourse about research, best practices in care and policy.
