October 2, 2017: New multi-agency initiative modeled on NIH Collaboratory to focus on non-drug approaches to managing chronic pain in U.S. service members and veterans.

A new research project modeled on the NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory has been created to investigate non-drug approaches to helping U.S. service members and veterans manage chronic pain. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) jointly announced the NIH-DoD-VA Pain Management Collaboratory project this week. The project, which includes funding for 12 NIH Collaboratory Trials over the next 6 years, will focus on large-scale, cost-effective, pragmatic trials conducted in military and VA healthcare systems.

The Pain Management Collaboratory Coordinating Center (PMC3) at Yale University will establish work groups to assist NIH Collaboratory Trials and provide support similar to that offered by NIH Collaboratory Core groups. A team from Duke Clinical Research Institute is leading one of the NIH Collaboratory Trials, a trial designed to improve access to recommended non-drug therapies for low back pain in the VA Health Care System.

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