University of Miami
Department of Anesthesiology,
Perioperative Medicine, and Pain Management
The University of Miami Pain Management Center
Mission Statement | Vision Statement | Training Programs | Translational
Research | Summary
Mission Statement
The University of Miami Pain Management Center (UMPMC) seeks to be the
leading multidisciplinary pain management facility in the southeastern USA and
to stimulate the growth of innovative interventions in pain management and
advances in clinical practice. We are dedicated to generating new knowledge
that can transform pain management and improve health care practice by
conducting scientific and clinical investigations and by designing innovative
health care curricula to train the future leaders of our field. We are dedicated to
excellent patient care, teaching, and research to discover new ways to relieve
pain and suffering.
Vision Statement
The UMPMC will become recognized nationally and internationally through
research, education, innovation in pain management, and dissemination of
clinical advances in pain care across the health care continuum.
Training Programs
The UM Pain Center is the leading multidisciplinary pain management facility in
the southeastern USA. State of the art pain relief treatment and education are
offered to patients and practitioners from all over the world. Cutting edge
research is conducted to seek new treatment for refractory pain conditions. We
plan to expand our training programs to educate the future leaders in the field of
pain management. For information concerning the pain management fellowship,
please visit http://www.jhsmiami.org/body.cfm?id=9438 or contact Dr. Salahadin
Abdi at (305) 585-6283.
Translational Research Programs
Effective pain management remains a major unmet need in medicine. We
are undertaking ground breaking translational research to understand
mechanisms of susceptibility to pain and develop innovative new interventions for
pain and suffering of millions of patients annually. At present there are
inadequate research programs that utilize the tremendous resources available
from the genome project (mouse and human) to understand the mechanisms of
genetic susceptibility to pain and improve patient care. Not surprisingly, little is
understood about mechanisms of disease susceptibility that would facilitate the
identification of at-risk subjects allowing early diagnosis, focused interventions,
and the development of better treatments and/or cures for pain.
The current broad-based multidisciplinary program lays the groundwork for
the discovery of mechanisms of susceptibility and translating them into
Sunday, December 4, 2011 1
University of Miami
Department of Anesthesiology,
Perioperative Medicine, and Pain Management
novel interventions that reduce the burden and suffering of pain by using
gene targets identified to: 1) identify biomarkers of susceptibility to develop
methods of at-risk populations; and 2) enable the development of novel
interventions to prevent and/or treat/cure pain and suffering.
First, we will utilize state-of-the-art translational research techniques in
premier model systems to map genetic loci important in disease
susceptibility/resistance. Next we will identify specific candidate genes,
determine their role in these model systems. Then, we will translate these
findings to humans by conducting association analyses in existing and in future
specialized homogeneous populations of pain patients (collections are ongoing)
to define the role of these selected candidate genes in acute and chronic pain
and suffering. Finally, once the role for these human genes is established, we will
work in partnership with investor and industry to develop and test new diagnostic
methods and novel pain management techniques and products to alleviate pain
and suffering in millions of patients with acute and chronic conditions. For
information concerning our translational research programs, please visit
http://www.jhsmiami.org/body.cfm?id=9438 or contact Dr. Levitt at (305) 243-
1992.
We seek Philanthropic gifts that allow expansion of our facilities and additional
personnel to embrace the unmet needs in training, research, and innovation that
will allow translation to other physicians, hospitals and institutions.
Priority needs The University of Miami Pain Management Center are:
* The extension of our facilities to accommodate additional
educational programs $3 million
* The endowment of a professorship for Translational Research on
Mechanisms of Susceptibility to Pain $2 million
* The endowment of a Training Fellowship in Pain Management
$1 million
* Pain Specialists (3 FTE nursing specialists for patient education,
subject collections, and assist with clinical/translational studies)
$1 million
* The endowment of a 5000 square foot research laboratory for the
study of genetic mechanisms of susceptibility to pain in the new science
building of the medical school
$2 million
Sunday, December 4, 2011 2
University of Miami
Department of Anesthesiology,
Perioperative Medicine, and Pain Management
Summary
We are dedicated to excellent patient care, teaching, and translational
research to discover new ways to relieve pain and suffering. Based on these
efforts, the UMPMC will become recognized nationally and internationally
through research, education, innovation in pain management, and dissemination
of clinical advances in pain care across the health care continuum.
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