HEAL Initiative: Developing Quantitative Imaging and Other Relevant Biomarkers of Myofascial Tissues for Clinical Pain Management (R61/R33, Clinical Trial Required)

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) intends to support the development of innovative quantitative imaging and other relevant biomarkers of myofascial tissues for pain management involving research participants using a two-phase grant funding mechanism. This effort is part of NIHs Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL)SM Initiative to speed the development and implementation of scientific solutions to the national opioid public health crisis. The NIH HEAL Initiative will bolster research across NIH to (1) improve treatment and prevention of opioid misuse and opioid use disorder and (2) enhance pain management. This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) seeks research applications to develop quantitative imaging biomarkers of myofascial tissues and assess their abilities to monitor responses and/or predict outcomes of a variety of pain management regimens. Candidates for the quantitative imaging biomarkers may include objective measures based on minimally invasive imaging technologies, electrophysiological recordings, integration of multiparametric imaging and electrophysiology approaches, or their integration with other markers (e.g., immune factors, genomic markers, physiological factors, etc.) through multiscale modeling or machine learning analysis. The first phase, funded by the R61, will provide funding for up to three years to develop quantitative measures that can differentiate myofascial tissue abnormalities in healthy versus latent, versus active myofascial pain stages using cross-sectional correlations with clinical signs/symptoms. In addition, the R61 phase should include team building and planning activities for the R33 phase. The second phase, funded under the R33, will provide up to two years of support to assess the abilities of the quantitative measures developed in the R61 phase to monitor responses and/or predict outcomes in response to specified therapies to relieve myofascial pain in longitudinal interventional studies.