Bethesda, Md.-based National Institutes of Health released a draft of its Federal Pain Research Priorities on May 25.
Here's what you should know.
1. The priorities are part of the Federal Pain Research Strategy, which is overseeing the development of a long-term plan for pain research.
2. NIH developed the strategy in response to a lack of emerging pharmacologic treatments in recent years.
3. The priorities fall into five general areas:
- Drug and non-pharmacological pain treatments
- Enhanced pain continuum screening tools and outcome measures
- Development of national registries, datasets and national networks
- Effective care delivery models
- Refining medicine methodology to prevent pain
4. NIH will redraft the priorities after the comment period, which ends June 6. NIH will release the finalized priorities at a later date.