Interdisciplinary Training in Biobehavioral Pain Research

疼痛是我们社会中最常见和最昂贵的症状之一。疼痛治疗的进展一直令人失望，特别是慢性疼痛，这是知之甚少和世界范围内残疾的主要原因。鉴于疼痛的巨大成本和影响，发展一支跨学科的研究队伍，能够领导创新研究，以揭示持续疼痛的原因，并发现更好的疼痛缓解策略，这一点非常重要。我们的目标是培养下一代疼痛研究人员来领导这项工作。因此，我们寻求更新和扩大我们在约翰霍普金斯大学生物行为疼痛研究的博士后跨学科培训计划，从4个职位增加到6个职位。疼痛是一种高度复杂的现象，涉及遗传、分子、神经生理、认知情绪和社会文化等因素。在几乎所有的临床情况下，疼痛的治疗仍然不足，因此需要机构在疼痛研究方面建立专门的、跨学科的培训，以应对开发、评估、传播和整合有效的疼痛治疗到临床护理中的巨大挑战。因此，医学研究所的“缓解美国疼痛”报告指出了更多跨学科疼痛培训项目的重要性和必要性。我们的26名项目教师来自医学院、护理学院、公共卫生学院和工程学院的10个部门。拟议的博士后项目的总体目标是为下一代创新研究领导者做好准备，以便在跨学科团队中合作解决复杂的疼痛问题。这个建议强调整个训练过程中疼痛的神经科学。每位教师导师都是积极资助的科学家，从事新研究者的教育，并致力于跨学科合作。这个为期两年的项目包括至少两个科学领域的课程、研讨会和指导研究经验，这些领域由以下几个方面综合：1)一个综合研究项目，2)一个校外资助申请，以及3)论文的写作和发表。培训目标是：1)增强疼痛神经科学的基础；2)形成一个广泛的疼痛概念，包括但不限于神经生物学、认知、情感、行为和社会过程；3)培养与其他学科的科学家沟通、建立网络和合作的技能；4)设计并实施一个综合疼痛研究项目。每位研究员将由两名具有不同疼痛研究专业领域的核心教师进行合作指导：1)基础神经科学，2)临床研究或3)行为或社会科学。研究员学习实验设计、统计、定量方法和负责任的研究行为等课程，这些课程在几次与疼痛有关的内容和职业发展研讨会中得到加强。我们的目标是培养下一代疼痛科学家，领导跨学科的研究团队，以创新的方式解决疼痛问题。

Pain is one of the most common and costly symptoms in our society. Advances in pain treatment have been disappointing, especially for chronic pain, which is poorly understood and the leading cause of disability worldwide. Given the tremendous cost and impact of pain, it is important to develop an interdisciplinary research workforce capable of leading innovative studies to unravel the causes of persistent pain and discover better pain relief strategies. Our goal is to prepare the next generation of pain researchers to lead this effort. As such, we seek to renew and expand our postdoctoral Interdisciplinary Training Program in Biobehavioral Pain Research at the Johns Hopkins University from four to six positions. Pain is a highly complex phenomenon that involves, genetic, molecular, neurophysiologic, cognitive-emotional, and sociocultural determinants. The treatment of pain remains inadequate in almost every clinical situation and consequently necessitates institutions create specialized, interdisciplinary training in pain research to address the tremendous challenge of developing, evaluating, disseminating, and integrating effective pain treatments into clinical care. As such, the Institute of Medicine’s ‘Relieving Pain in America’ report notes the importance and need for more interdisciplinary pain training programs. Our 26 program faculty cuts across 10 departments in the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, and Engineering. The overarching goal of the proposed postdoctoral program is to prepare the next generation of innovative research leaders to work cooperatively within an interdisciplinary team to address the complex problem of pain. This proposal emphasizes the neuroscience of pain throughout training. Each faculty mentor is an actively funded scientist, engaged in the education of new investigators, and committed to interdisciplinary collaboration. The two-year program incorporates coursework, seminars and mentored research experiences in at least two scientific domains that are synthesized by: 1) an integrated research project, 2) an extramural grant application, and 3) the writing and publishing of papers. The training objectives are to: 1) develop an enhanced foundation in the neuroscience of pain; 2) engender a broad conceptualization of pain that includes, but is not limited to, neurobiologic, cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social processes; 3) develop skills for communicating, networking and collaborating with scientists in other disciplines; and 4) design and conduct an integrative pain research project. Each fellow is to be collaboratively mentored by two Core faculty with distinct domains of pain research expertise in either: 1) basic neuroscience, 2) clinical research or 3) behavioral or social science. Fellows take courses in experimental design, statistics, quantitative methods and the responsible conduct of research, which are reinforced throughout several pain-related content and career development seminars. Our goal is to prepare the next generation of pain scientists to lead interdisciplinary research teams that will innovatively address the problem of pain.