Poree and Shirvalkar Win Catalyst Award to Study EEG Guided Spinal Cord Stimulation for Chronic Pain

image of a 2d body model with robotic devices on top

In response to the national chronic pain and opioid epidemics, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine published its July 2017 report, “Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic: Balancing Societal and Individual Benefits and Risks of Prescription Opioid Use.” In this report, NASEM committee members, including Chief of the UCSF Division of Pain MedicineMark Schumacher, MD, PhD, recommended several strategies for addressing these devastating epidemics. Among the recommendations is the critical need for more research to close “gaps [that] exist in the data describing the epidemiology of pain, OUD, and other opioid-related harms in the United States.” Furthermore, the report stressed the need for “research to identify and develop nonaddictive alternatives to opioids for treatment of pain.”

 

UCSF Division of Pain Medicine members have been working hard to address the gaps in research that were identified in the NASEM report. One such project, led by UCSF Pain Division faculty Drs. Lawrence Poree and Prasad Shirvalkar, aims to identify and validate EEG biomarkers for pain relief. They were recently awarded a UCSF Catalyst Program award for this work. UCSF Catalyst Awards “provide both industry advisor mentorship and seed funding to UCSF PIs with promising projects. The Catalyst Awards are focused on the development of therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices and digital health.” 

 

EEG Guided Personalized Spinal Cord Stimulation for Chronic Pain”