In a new video, Drs. Wendy Weber and Dave Clark discuss the NIH-DoD-VA Pain Management Collaboratory, which is modeled after the NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory. The Pain Management Collaboratory has a centralized Coordinating Center and is supporting a series of 11 pragmatic trials in military and veteran health care delivery organizations focusing on non-pharmacological approaches to pain management.

Dave Clark, Wendy Weber from NIH Collaboratory on Vimeo.

“All of the projects are pragmatic trials done either within the VA or the Military Health System and they all address non-pharmacological approaches to pain management. Our goal is partnering with the VA and the DoD to really see if we can find other ways of managing pain other than opioid medication.” —Dr. Wendy Weber, Acting Deputy Director for the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

This collaboration marks one of the first times the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have worked together.