DART Lab | Meet Our Team

Joe Kossowsky PhD, MMSc. is a clinical investigator in the Division of Pain Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. Following his graduate studies in Clinical Psychology and Neuroscience, Dr. Kossowsky obtained his PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Basel, Switzerland and a Master's degree in Biomedical Informatics from Harvard Medical School. He completed postdoctoral fellowships in the areas of pediatric pain, placebo research and biomedical informatics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School.

My research focuses on chronic pain in children and adolescents. I am interested in psychological factors, especially emotions, emotion regulation and sensory processing sensitivity, that might contribute to the development and maintenance of chronic pain. Knowing more about these factors might also help to detect children at risk to develop chronic pain after an episode of acute pain. Another focus of my research is to examine the safety and efficacy of available interventions for patients suffering from chronic pain. Methodologically, I analyze existing data from randomized-controlled trials by means of (network) meta-analyses, conduct experiments, and am currently planning a small clinical trial that examines the efficacy of animal-assisted psychotherapy for children with chronic pain. Apart from my affiliation at Boston Children’s Hospital, I am an adjunct senior researcher at the Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel.

I am a graduate student of psychology at the University Of Basel, Switzerland. My main research interests include anything within the broad range where clinical research and psychology intersect with the digital realm. This encompasses data gathering using digital tools like Fitbits or smartphone apps as well as evaluating clinical data using modern data science approaches like Multilevel Modeling or Machine Learning. I am a strong believer in the potential of projects that cross into different fields of research and hope to keep broadening my horizon and connect with people from all sorts of backgrounds!
 

Camila is a medical student from Brazil, University of Sao Paulo. Camila's main interest is in the Pediatric and Genetics field. She is currently involved in projects related to sleep and chronic pain. Camila likes to practice sports, read and watch TV shows in her free time. She is very enthusiastic about research and clinical practice!

Justin graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University in 2020 where he received a Bachelor of Science in Biology with minors in Psychology and Music. Justin is passionate about preventing disease, promoting well-being, and mitigating barriers to healthcare. He is particularly interested in pediatric primary care, rehabilitation, and nutrition. In his free time, Justin enjoys hiking, visual and performing arts, and playing a plethora of musical instruments.