Honoring the work the NIH does for pain and at-risk patient populations
The other day, as I was trying to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s happening in healthcare, I came across an article that described Dr. Valri’s work on pediatric pain as presented in sickle cell patients. Dr. Valri works to improve pain management for this at-risk and underserved patient population and was recognized with the NIH’s HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) Interdisciplinary Collaboration award for building relationships across fields of study in her research. HEAL is an NIH-wide effort to address the opioid crisis and substance use disorder (SUD). The HEAL initiative funds more than 1000 projects in the US and this really got me reflecting on how much good work the NIH is doing to fund research and solutions that target at-risk and underserved populations. This funding happens because the NIH makes it a priority to fund these types of projects and values diversity and inclusion in research. Because we at SpellBound also have a mission to serve marginalized, under-represented, and at-risk patient populations, we have also benefited from NIH initiatives. Our research is funded by NIDA (National Instituted on Drug Abuse) and we have been fortunate enough to receive two grants in the last 4 years:
An augmented reality platform to reduce post-operative and chronic opioid use in pediatric cancer
Hypothesis: If we gamify movement after surgery and motivate patients with immersive augmented reality so that they are self-directed, we can positively impact factors that affect outcomes, like length of stay, opioid consumption, quality of life, etc.
Status: In phase II recruitment
Phase I publications:
Optimizing Perioperative Use of Opioids: A Multimodal Approach
Augmented Reality in Anesthesia, Pain Medicine and Critical Care: a Narrative Review
Feasibility of a dual English/Spanish mobile augmented reality pain assessment app to reduce postoperative prescription opioid use in Hispanic/Latino pediatric and adolescent cancer patients
Hypothesis: If we gamify and motivate pain score reporting with augmented reality in Spanish, hispanic children and adolescents will provide more accurate pain reporting.
Status: Phase I recruitment
We are grateful for the work of the NIH and all their supplemental programs that not only support small companies through their research and validation phase, but also support commercialization so that as many children as possible have the chance to benefit from the advances in technology being developed.