U24AT011978

Spine-Work: An Inclusive Research Community to Study and Improve Force-Based Manipulations for Spine Pain

Low back and neck pain impose major impediments to quality of life and are responsible for significant productivity loss. These conditions are often treated with expensive, sometimes ineffective, and potentially addictive drugs. Complementary therapies, especially force-based manipulations (FBMs), have the potential to address these challenges but remain poorly understood, particularly for spine pain.

The highly multifaceted nature of FBMs complicates a complete understanding of the physiologic mechanisms involved in pain relief. It requires the integrative synthesis of neuroscience, physics, engineering, physiology, and clinical fields. To address this need, we will create a network called SpineWork, consisting of researchers from all disciplines interested in exploring the potential role of FBMs in alleviating spine pain.

SpineWork will provide its members with the opportunity to identify new collaborators, learn about other disciplines, disseminate ideas and information to their colleagues and the larger community, and foster better interdisciplinary communication. The network will be supported by a set of committees and organized into intersecting and evolving working groups. These groups will consist of members from multiple institutions and traditional disciplines, focusing on specific areas such as imaging or animal models.

The working groups will promote interdisciplinary research through physical and virtual gatherings, white papers, journal special issues, and video content. A special working group on terminology will focus on defining a common lexicon for spine pain and force-based manipulations. This task is essential because even simple terms can have very different meanings to different communities, leading to confusion and impeding progress for collaborative teams.

SpineWork will also sponsor a pilot and facilitation grant program for interdisciplinary collaborative teams formed by its members. The grants will focus on opportunities to seed or boost R01 proposals, activities that build intellectual infrastructure (e.g., think tanks or workshops), and opportunities for scientists to immerse themselves in disciplines outside their core area.

Annually, SpineWork will bring its members together for a summit meeting to assess its activities, report findings, spawn new working groups, review progress, and plan for the coming year. Overall, SpineWork's mission is to lay the intellectual groundwork for improved treatment of low back and neck pain via FBMs. This will be achieved by creating and fostering a multidisciplinary, scientifically and culturally diverse network of researchers from across the spectrum of approaches to understand FBMs and spine pain.

Trustees Of The University Of Pennsylvania

NOT APPLICABLE

93.213 - Research and Training in Complementary and Integrative Health

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) [HHS - NIH]

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 191046321 United States

Single Zip Code

Neural Mechanisms of Force-Based Manipulations: High Priority Research Networks (U24 Clinical Trial Optional) (RFA-AT-21-006)

Amendment Since initial award the total obligations have increased 388% from $656,825 to $3,204,174.