Funded Projects

Explore our currently funded projects. You may search with all three fields, then focus your results by applying any of the dropdown filters. After customizing your search, you may download results and even save your specific search for later.

Project # Project Title Research Focus Area Research Program Administering IC Institution(s) Investigator(s) Location(s) Year Awarded
3R33AT010606-03S1
Adapting the HOPE Online Support Intervention to Increase MAT Uptake Among OUD Patients Translation of Research to Practice for the Treatment of Opioid Addiction Behavioral Research to Improve Medication-Based Treatment NCCIH UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE YOUNG, SEAN Irvine, CA 2021
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-21-025
Summary:

Effective medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) are approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of people with opioid use disorder; however, only a small fraction of patients who would benefit from these medications actually use them. Several reasons contribute to low MOUD use, including lack of insurance; lack of knowledge about the medications, both among patients and providers; stigma associated with MOUD; and social norms. Innovative methods are needed to help increase MOUD use. One such option is peer-led interventions that might increase patients’ interest in MOUD. One existing peer-led intervention is the Harnessing Online Peer Education (HOPE) online community intervention that has been designed to reduce stigma and increase health behavior change among stigmatized populations, such as people living with HIV. This project will investigate whether and how HOPE can be adapted for people with opioid use disorder. It will assess whether HOPE can effectively increase MOUD requests, MOUD uptake, and sustained adherence to MOUD as well as reduce overdose rates.  

3UG1DA049468-03S3
Exploring Health Beliefs for Community Engagement and Diversity in Clinical Trials Translation of Research to Practice for the Treatment of Opioid Addiction Enhancing the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network to Address Opioids NIDA UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO HEALTH SCIS CTR PAGE, KIMBERLY Albuquerque, NM 2021
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-21-025
Summary:

Including all population subgroups in clinical research is important to ensure that research results apply to the entire population and can be implemented effectively. However, many communities are underrepresented in health research due to individual, cultural, or structural reasons. This project aims to develop a Health Beliefs Toolkit that will be a readily accessible resource for researchers, providers, and community groups to help them engage diverse and minority populations in clinical research, particularly regarding substance use disorders. The project will examine, adapt, and test existing materials and resources targeting individual and structural barriers to research engagement. The toolkit will also assess individuals’ knowledge of health as well as health-related personal values and beliefs to enhance health and research “literacy.” The toolkit will be targeted to primary care providers, community health workers, peer counselors, agency representatives, and patient and non-patient groups to enhance practice-based research in underserved communities.

3UH3AT010621-03S2
Group-Based Mindfulness for Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain in the Primary Care Clinical Research in Pain Management NCCIH BOSTON MEDICAL CENTER MORONE, NATALIA E Boston, MA 2021
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-21-025
Summary:

Mindfulness has been shown to be effective in treating chronic low back pain, but it has not been embedded into routine clinical care. The OPTIMUM study (Optimizing Pain Treatment In Medical settings Using Mindfulness) will address barriers to delivering mindfulness in primary care and determine the effectiveness in this setting. This project extends the stakeholder engagement efforts of the OPTIMUM study by increasing the size and responsibilities of the Community Advisory Board, adding focus groups for participants in both study arms, and collecting stories from study nonparticipants about their experience seeking care for chronic low back pain and their views on participating in research. This expanded effort will optimize recruitment of a diverse and underrepresented sample, maximize retention, and prepare for future implementation and dissemination.

3U19AR076737-01S2
REACH Participant Diversity Program Clinical Research in Pain Management Back Pain Consortium Research Program NIAMS UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO LOTZ, JEFFREY C San Francisco, CA 2021
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-21-025
Summary:

The University of California, San Francisco, as part of the Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) Research Program, has established a Core Center for Patient-centric Mechanistic Phenotyping in Chronic Low Back Pain (REACH). The main goal of REACH is to define different subtypes (phenotypes) of chronic low back pain as well as to identify underlying pain mechanisms that can lead to effective, personalized treatments for patients across all population subgroups. To achieve this goal, REACH is, or will be, participating in several clinical trials, and it is imperative that the patients participating in these trials reflect the diversity of the U.S. population. Therefore, this project seeks to adapt methods that have successfully improved minority participation in other settings as well as to develop and deploy digital strategies that can promote recruitment and engagement of patients from marginalized populations.

3UH3AT010739-03S1
Improving Diversity, Inclusion, and Retention in BackinAction/AcuOA Clinical Research in Pain Management NCCIH KAISER FOUNDATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE SHERMAN, KAREN J Oakland, CA 2021
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-21-025
Summary:

Participants in many clinical trials do not represent the U.S. population. Racial/ethnic minorities are often underrepresented, as are people with lower socioeconomic status and lower education levels, who face additional barriers, such as lack of transportation or childcare. Thus, both recruitment and retention of such populations is challenging, particularly for complementary and integrative health trials. This project proposes to enhance diversity, inclusion, and retention of participants in an ongoing study by creating a patient and caregiver Diversity, Recruitment, and Retention Advisory Board as well as adding a recruitment and retention specialist to coordinate the advisory board and implement necessary activities. The project will also provide evidence-based recruitment tools and will conduct structured interviews with patients who choose not to participate in a study as well as those who are at risk of dropping out to enhance understanding of the barriers and factors contributing to trial recruitment, loss to follow-up, and successful completion.

3UH3AR076573-03S1
Improving representation of non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic study participants in a trial of virtual reality for chronic lower back pain Clinical Research in Pain Management Back Pain Consortium Research Program NIAMS CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL CENTER SPIEGEL, BRENNAN Los Angeles, CA 2021
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-21-025
Summary:

Digital health interventions, such as virtual reality (VR) applications, have become available for the treatment and monitoring of numerous health conditions, including pain management. A current HEAL-funded study is evaluating the role of a therapeutic VR approach for chronic low back pain. However, racial and ethnic disparities exist in patient access and response to such VR applications, as well as in the incidence and reporting of pain. For example, non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to report severe pain than non-Hispanic Whites, yet are less likely to have access to digital health information and interventions. To address these disparities, this project will develop a framework to advance diversity and inclusion in digital health trials and will seek to increase the proportion of non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic participants in the ongoing VR trial by tailoring recruitment materials and using novel artificial intelligence-driven cohort building tools.

3U19AR076734-01S4
University of Michigan BACPAC Mechanistic Research Center Clinical Research in Pain Management Back Pain Consortium Research Program NIAMS UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR CLAUW, DANIEL J Ann Arbor, MI 2021
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-21-025
Summary:

Chronic overlapping pain conditions represent up to half of all chronic pain cases and can be more debilitating than other forms of chronic pain. These conditions include but are not limited to the following: temporomandibular disorders, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, vulvodynia, interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome, painful endometriosis, chronic tension type headache, migraine headache, chronic low back pain, and chronic fatigue syndrome. Common neurobiological mechanisms have been suspected to account for the overlap between these conditions, but until recently it has been difficult to efficiently classify each condition within individual patients. A digital classification tool for clinicians has been developed for this purpose, but access to the tool remains limited. Here we propose converting this chronic overlapping pain conditions classification tool into a common web-based application format.

3UH3DA050173-02S1
Optimized Interventions to Prevent Opioid Use Disorder among Adolescents and Young Adults in the Emergency Department New Strategies to Prevent and Treat Opioid Addiction Preventing Opioid Use Disorder NIDA UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR WALTON, MAUREEN A Ann Arbor, MI 2021
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-21-025
Summary:

The emergency department is an ideal venue to reach and intervene with adolescents and young adults at risk for opioid misuse, particularly as young adults may disconnect from primary care when transitioning out of care in pediatric settings. This study will evaluate the efficacy of interventions of varying type and intensity to prevent or reduce opioid misuse or opioid use disorder. The research leverages technology that is appealing to youth to facilitate intervention delivery by health coaches. In this study, adolescents and young adults in the emergency department screening positive for opioid use or misuse will be randomly assigned to one of four intervention conditions with outcomes measured at 4, 8, and 12 months. Technology-driven, scalable interventions delivered via health coaches allow for real-time tailoring to the rapidly changing opioid epidemic, with the potential to prevent an increase in opioid misuse among adolescents and young adults.  Black/African American youth are at increased risk for opioid and other substance use, but they often do not participate in research studies. As a result, it is not known how well prevention interventions work with Black/African American people. This supplement will focus on increasing participant diversity and inclusion by recruiting additional Black/African American participants for this ongoing randomized controlled study of technology-driven prevention interventions.

3U24AR076730-01S1
Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) Research Program Data Integration, Algorithm Development and Operations Management Center Clinical Research in Pain Management Back Pain Consortium Research Program NIAMS UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL LAVANGE, LISA Chapel Hill, NC 2021
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-21-025
Summary:

The NIH Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) Research Program brings together leading centers with expertise in studying and treating chronic low back pain to advance understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the condition and to identify novel treatment strategies. BACPAC is undertaking a multisite precision medicine clinical trial taking into account patient-specific information to understand which patients with chronic low back pain respond best to various nonopioid, evidence-based treatments. The trial seeks to enroll a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse patient population to ensure that the results are applicable to all Americans with chronic low back pain. This project aims to develop comprehensive recruitment and retention plans for study sites that can recruit from historically underrepresented populations in clinical research (e.g., Black and Hispanic populations) and to provide dedicated financial resources to engage patients from these populations using tailored, culturally appropriate strategies.

3UG1CA189824-08S2
Developing and Implementing a Culturally Appropriate Non-Opioid Pain Coping Skills Training Intervention for Spanish-Speaking Hispanic/Latinx Patients with Cancer Pain Clinical Research in Pain Management Pain Management Effectiveness Research Network (ERN) NCI WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES LESSER, GLENN J Winston-Salem, NC 2021
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-21-025
Summary:

Cancer remains a leading cause of death among Hispanic/Latino populations in the United States. Compared with non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanic/Latino cancer patients are more likely to experience poor quality of life and inadequate cancer-related care, including less effective pain relief and poor patient‒provider communication. Additionally, Hispanic/Latino populations often have inadequate access to pain treatment, due to both social disparities and language barriers. However, most behavioral and psychosocial oncology research continues to focus on non-Hispanic Whites, and empirically validated and effective treatment interventions, particularly psychosocial interventions, are often not available in Spanish. This project will generate a Spanish-language version of the painTRAINER internet-based coping skills training program that is both linguistically and culturally sensitive and will evaluate its feasibility and acceptability in Hispanic/Latino patients with persistent cancer-related pain.

3-UH3-AT010739-02
Pragmatic Trial of Acupuncture for Chronic Low Back Pain in Older Adults Clinical Research in Pain Management Pragmatic and Implementation Studies for the Management of Pain to Reduce Opioid Prescribing (PRISM) NCCIH KAISER FOUNDATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE SHERMAN, KAREN J (contact); DEBAR, LYNN L Oakland, CA 2021
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-21-025
3PL1HD101059-01S2
Administrative Supplement to Increase Participant Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement in the ACT NOW OBOE Study Enhanced Outcomes for Infants and Children Exposed to Opioids Advancing Clinical Trials in Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal (ACT NOW) NICHD RESEARCH TRIANGLE INSTITUTE BANN, CARLA M Research Triangle Park, NC 2021
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-21-025
Summary:

The ACT NOW Outcomes of Babies with Opioid Exposure (OBOE) Study – also called the ACT NOW Longitudinal Study – is a longitudinal cohort study to prospectively examine longitudinal outcomes from birth to 2 years of age among infants who were exposed to opioids in utero as compared to matched controls. The objectives of this study are to i) determine the impact of pre-birth opioid exposure on brain structure and connectivity over the first 2 years of life, ii) define medical, developmental, and behavioral outcomes over the first 2 years of life in infants exposed to opioids, and iii) Explore whether and how the home environment, maternal mental health, and parenting affect brain connectivity and neurodevelopment trajectories over the first 2 years of life. This research will use an innovative approach to engage a more diverse study population and thereby improve the generalizability of the research findings.

3U24NS114416-01S1
Administrative Supplement to Support Strategies to Increase Participant Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement in EPPIC NET Clinical Research in Pain Management Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network (EPPIC-Net) NINDS DUKE UNIVERSITY LIMKAKENG, ALEXANDER TAN Durham, NC 2021
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-21-025
Summary:

A main goal of the NIH HEAL Initiative and the Early Phase Pain Intervention Clinical Network (EPPIC-Net) is to improve non-opioid pain management. This award will leverage the resources at one of EPPIC-Net’s Specialized Clinical Centers by implementing and evaluating strategies to improve the engagement, recruitment, and retention of individuals from underserved racial/ethnic minority populations to participate in EPPIC-Net clinical trials. Since environmental, cultural, and genetic factors may account for observed differences in pain responses between racial and ethnic groups, enrollment of a diverse sample in pain research is crucial to obtain a complete understanding of the effectiveness of any proposed pain therapeutic intervention. The success of these activities will be evaluated, and a toolkit will be created to define best practices that can be by other EPPIC-Net sites and additional trials.

3U24NS115678-01S1
Increasing Diversity and Community Engagement in EPPIC-Net Research at the University of Washington Clinical Research in Pain Management Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical Network (EPPIC-Net) NINDS UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON BACKONJA, MIROSLAV MISHA Seattle, WA 2021
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-21-025
Summary:

A main goal of the NIH HEAL Initiative and the Early Phase Pain Intervention Clinical Network (EPPIC-Net) is to improve pain management by discovering and validating biomarkers and non-opioid pain medications. This award will leverage the resources at the University of Washington’s EPPIC-Net’s Specialized Clinical Centers by implementing and evaluating strategies to improve the engagement, recruitment, and retention of individuals from underserved racial/ethnic minority populations to participate in EPPIC-Net clinical trials. The site’s network spans multiple states and specialties, allowing access to geographically and demographically diverse patient populations, including underrepresented and underserved populations. 

3UH3AR077360-03S2
Increasing Participant Diversity in a 'Sequenced-Strategy to Improve Outcomes in People with Knee Osteoarthritis Pain (SKOAP) Clinical Research in Pain Management Pain Management Effectiveness Research Network (ERN) NIAMS JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY COHEN, STEVEN P Baltimore, MD 2021
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-21-025
Summary:

Knee osteoarthritis is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, particularly among older adults. Despite multiple guidelines for care, most patients do not receive adequate treatment, and about 30% are prescribed long-term opioids. This award will be used to recruit and support an early career faculty member from a group underrepresented in biomedicine. This research, part of the Pain Management Effectiveness Research Network will evaluate conservative and more aggressive treatments for knee osteoarthritis and determine which individual-level factors contribute to treatment outcomes.