Funded Projects

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Secondary Analysis and Integration of Existing Data Related to Acute and Chronic Pain Development or Managementin Humans (R21 Clinical Trials Not Allowed)
NOFO Number: RFA-DE-22-011
Summary:

Chronic pain is a persistent source of disability and reduced quality of life for aging adults. Chronic pain-related outcomes are disproportionately worse for aging African Americans, who report greater pain severity and worse pain-related disability compared to White peers. A significant pain risk factor for African Americans is chronic stress (including family-related stress), which is worsened by structural inequities that affect this population. Although many African Americans identify family support as critical for pain self-management, this influence has not been studied thoroughly. This project will study how pain conditions develop and persist for aging African Americans by analyzing existing data from African American participants in two large aging studies: Midlife in the U.S. (721 participants) and the Health and Retirement Study (2,698 participants). The research aims to determine how family emotional climate affects pain risk, taking into account structural factors like discrimination, socioeconomic disparity, and the influence of various neighborhood settings.

NOFO Title: Notice of Special Interest to Encourage Eligible NIH HEAL Initiative Awardees to Apply for Administrative Supplements to Support Career Enhancement Related to Clinical Research on Pain (Admin Supp – Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
NOFO Number: NOT-NS-22-087
Summary:

Many medication-based and complementary/integrative interventions are available to treat chronic low back pain, yet no treatment works for all patients. This clinical research strives to understand patient characteristics that predict differential responses to chronic low back pain interventions such as acupressure. This knowledge will enable early career researchers and clinicians to develop tailored treatments for individual patients.

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Data and Methods to Address Urgent Needs to Stem the Opioid Epidemic (R01- Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-22-044
Summary:

Effective responses to the highly dynamic overdose crisis require accurate and timely information about the timing and location of drug overdoses, which is currently reported mainly through death certificates that take time to become available and thus limit life-saving responses. This project will comprehensively evaluate, optimize, and assess barriers and facilitators to adoption of a surveillance tool developed by the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The tool uses data routinely collected during death investigations to predict in near real-time whether a death was due to an unintentional drug overdose. The findings will inform drug overdose mortality surveillance efforts in other states.

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: America’s Startups and Small Businesses Build Technologies to Stop the Opioid Crisis (R43/R44 - Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-19-019
Summary:

Effective medication-based treatment could prevent overdose deaths and help individuals recover from opioid use disorder, but only a fraction of those in need access treatment or receive a medication approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. One way to improve people’s choice to seek and stay in treatment is to improve training for addiction treatment counselors beyond current methods that rely on brief online or in-person workshops. The goal of this research project is to develop and evaluate the technical feasibility and commercial viability of a scalable digital program to train behavioral addiction professionals in Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT), an evidence-based approach to increase treatment entry, using ongoing counselor training with feedback and coaching.

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: America’s Startups and Small Businesses Build Technologies to Stop the Opioid Crisis (R43/R44 - Clinical Trial Optional)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-19-019
Summary:

People with opioid use disorder living in rural and underserved areas often have limited access to treatment. This project will develop a robotic treatment booth that allows opioid treatment centers to dispense opioid use disorder medications, while providing medical observation via real-time telehealth services. This new technology will provide a contactless patient–provider experience and leverage the expertise to expand treatment access to additional rural and underserved areas.

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) regarding the Availability of Administrative Supplements to Support Strategies to Increase Participant Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement in Clinical Studies
NOFO Number: NOT-NS-22-066
Summary:

This research aims to define factors involved in the transition from acute to chronic pain, toward reducing opioid use and discovering new, non-addictive pain treatments. This project will develop recruitment efforts to engage a diverse patient population in clinical research that results from new findings about the transition from acute to chronic pain. The project will use focus groups, led by experts in health equity and implementation research, and patient navigators to enhance recruitment of diverse research participants.

NOFO Title: HEAL INITIATIVE: Development of Therapies and Technologies Directed at Enhanced Pain Management (R43/R44 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-23-006
Summary:

Pelvic pain (PP) includes more than 20 different painful and debilitating conditions, such as urinary tract infections, menstrual cramps, endometriosis, overactive bladder, and interstitial cystitis, and affects millions of people. Globally, pelvic pain affects 1 in 5 women and 1 in 12 men. This project will develop an instrument to monitor and treat pain-associated temperature changes in the pelvic region to reduce chronic pelvic pain. This novel system is intended to be used at home with personalized settings.

NOFO Title: HEAL INITIATIVE: Development of Therapies and Technologies Directed at Enhanced Pain Management (R43/R44 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-23-006
Summary:

This project will develop PIDA, which will allow researchers to measure the activity of pain-sensitive human neurons in response to pain stimuli and potential pain treatments. The tool will use automated digital microscopes in the absence or presence of a potential pain medication. Since this tool contains human neurons, it may be more effective at predicting the efficacy of potential pain drugs in human patients than the animal models that are currently used.

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Development of Therapies and Technologies Directed at Enhanced Pain Management (R41/R42 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-23-007
Summary:

Nerve stimulators are devices surgically implanted near a peripheral nerve or on the spinal cord that use electrical signals to reduce the perception of pain. Although these devices can provide effective pain relief to patients, many have high complication rates, resulting from the wire moving, breaking, not working, or the implantable battery pack or permanent wire causing new pain. This project will support the development and animal testing of a peripheral nerve stimulator to treat chronic pain which can be implanted without surgery. Once injected, the device will provide pain relief through electrical stimulation and then be safely degraded and resorbed by the body.

NOFO Title: Career Development Awards in Implementation Science for Substance Use Prevention and Treatment (K01 - Clinical Trial Required) 
NOFO Number: PAS-22-206
Summary:

Many people with opioid use disorder (OUD) also have a serious mental illness and other chronic conditions, which can be difficult for individuals and primary care providers to manage. A chronic disease self-management program is an established health care model in which peers help to educate patients about their condition(s) and build problem-solving skills to manage their health. Such programs have been effective in other populations and settings, but they have not been adapted for primary care patients who have OUD and SMI. This project will adapt and test a chronic disease self-management program for this population to understand its feasibility, acceptability, impact, and how best to put such programs into place widely in primary care settings.

NOFO Title: Career Development Awards in Implementation Science for Substance Use Prevention and Treatment (K23 - Clinical Trial Required)
NOFO Number: PAS-22-207
Summary:

Evidence-based behavioral treatments for pain are among the most effective and safe approaches, but they are underused, especially among patients taking opioids long-term. Despite known risks to long-term opioid therapy (including opioid use disorder and overdoses), patients may be reluctant to try something different to manage their pain. This project brings together two evidence-based behavior change interventions—motivational interviewing and contingency management—into an online format. The research will test whether web-based tools or mobile apps influence a patient’s willingness to consider using non-medication treatments for pain. The research will assess feasibility, acceptability to patients and providers, and broad-scale implementation.

NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative Advanced Postdoctoral-to-Independent Career Transition Award in PAIN and SUD Research (K99/R00 Independent Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-22-022
Summary:

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a frequent cause of disability and chronic pain. Treatment often relies on analgesics like opioids to manage OA pain, with all the associated risks; other approaches to treat OA are often invasive and inaccessible to patients. Therefore, novel analgesic strategies are needed to reduce the high burden of knee OA-induced pain. This project aims to study in detail and target the sensory neurons that drive OA pain to assist in the development of more effective pain therapeutics.