Pain-Train: A Translational Pain Research Training Program

Dale J. Langford, PhD - PPRC & Pain-Train Co-Director

Director of Chronic Pain Research, Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care & Pain Management, Hospital for Special Surgery

Dr. Langford Director of Chronic Pain Research at Hospital for Special Surgery and Associate Professor of Pain Management Research at Weill Cornell Medicine. She is a multidisciplinary pain researcher whose primary focus to date has been on understanding and identifying factors associated with the tremendous individual differences in the experience of pain. Her research and training background spans psychology, behavioral neuroscience, physiological nursing, epidemiology, biostatistics, and pain medicine.  Prior to transitioning to clinical pain research, Dr. Langford studied social communication and facial expressions of pain in laboratory mice with Jeffrey Mogil at McGill University. This work culminated in a first-author paper in Science, demonstrating evidence of rodent empathy for pain, and a first-author paper in Nature Methods, describing the development and validation of the Mouse Grimace Scale (MGS), a first of its kind facial expression coding tool for spontaneous pain in mice. The MGS has since been expanded for use in >10 mammalian species and is used for both research and animal care purposes.

Dr. Langford conducted her postdoctoral work with Christine Miaskowski at UCSF, where she studied phenotypic and genotypic factors associated with cancer-related pain and co-occurring symptoms (e.g., fatigue, sleep disturbance, depression) and where she received advanced training in clinical research methodology. Dr. Langford has held faculty appointments at University of Washington and University of Rochester where she worked or led numerous projects related to management or measurement of chronic non-cancer and cancer-related pain, and where she maintains affiliate and adjunct appointments, respectively. She is an engaged member the Analgesic, Anesthetic, and Addiction Clinical Trial Translations, Innovations, Opportunities, and Networks (ACTTION) public-private partnership, as both Co-Chair of ACTTION’s Consortium on Pain Effectiveness and Safety Studies (COPESS), focused on optimizing outcome assessment for clinical trials of chronic pain treatments, and Director of the Center on Patient And Stakeholder Engagement for Trial Innovation and Quality (COPASETIQ), focused on patient engagement as research partners and disparities in clinical trial participation. Dr. Langford is on the Editorial Board of The Journal of Pain, Clinical Journal of Pain and regularly reviews for PAIN, The Journal of Pain, Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, and Pain Medicine.

@djlPAINology  *  Dr. Langford on Google Scholar

Alexandra Sideris, PhD - PPRC & Pain-Train Co-Director

C.V. Starr Director of Pain Research; Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care & Pain Management, Hospital for Special Surgery

Dr. Sideris is the C.V. Starr Director of Pain Research at Hospital for Surgery, Assistant Professor of Pain Research at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Assistant Scientist at the HSS Research Institute. She received her PhD in Neuroscience & Physiology from NYU School of Medicine and held instructor and research assistant professor positions in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative Care and Pain Medicine. At NYU, Dr. Sideris studied the development and prevention of neuropathic pain in rodent models by targeting the endocannabinoid system, tissue-specific microRNA, and gap-junctions. She transitioned to clinical research in 2018 by joining the Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care & Pain Management at HSS where she helped develop and expand the anesthesiology department’s research portfolio by assisting with the design and supporting the execution of numerous novel research studies with prolific and motivated clinicians at various levels in their career. She administratively oversaw over 70 studies and managed a team of 11 research staff. In her most recent endeavors, Dr. Sideris has coordinated the creation of two internal registries that capture pain outcomes of patients who are treated on an outpatient basis and who undergo more invasive surgical procedures at HSS.

These databases will help our research team better understand and predict severe pain and opioid consumption, and will facilitate the development of innovative, collaborative research strategies to prevent and mitigate patient complications. Given her long-standing research interest in cannabinoids and the significant interest expressed by patients and surgeons in cannabis’ therapeutic potential, she is also leading the first CBD pilot study in HSS orthopedic patients to estimate perioperative opioid consumption and pain levels. Her work has been published in several journals including the British Journal of Anaesthesia, Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, Anesthesia & Analgesia, Anesthesiology, Neuroscience, Molecular Pain, and Experimental Neurology. In addition to being on the editorial board of Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine and serving as a reviewer for other journals, she is actively involved in supporting young scientists as a volunteer judge in the NYC Science and Engineering Fair, serves as a faculty member on the HSS-Macaulay Summer Scholars Research program planning committee, and is a member of HSS’ employee resource group Women Inspiring Success and Excellence (WISE).

Dr. Sideris on Google Scholar

Christopher L. Wu, MD - PPRC Steering Committee Chair & Founding Director and Pain-Train Faculty

Director of Clinical Research, Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care & Pain Management, Hospital for Special Surgery

With a Google Scholar h-index of 72, Dr. Wu is a Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology and an internationally recognized expert in postoperative pain management and enhanced recovery after surgery.  He has over 200 peer previewed publications and book chapters and has published in top journals such as JAMA, Lancet, British Medical Journal, Anesthesiology, Pain, and British Journal of Anaesthesia. Dr. Wu is or has been on the editorial board of several journals including Anesthesiology, Anesthesia & Analgesia, Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine, Journal of Clinical Pain, and Journal of Opioid Management. He currently is the Director of Clinical Research in the Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care Medicine and Pain Management at HSS.

@ChrisWuMD * Dr. Wu on Google Scholar

Robert H. Dworkin, PhD - PPRC Chief Scientific Advisor and Pain-Train Faculty

Director, Analgesic, Anesthetic, and Addiction Clinical Trial Translations, Innovations, Opportunities, and Networks and Pediatric Anesthesia Safety Initiative (ACTTION/PASI); Adjunct Senior Scientist, Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care & Pain Management, Hospital for Special Surgery; Professor, University of Rochester

Dr. Dworkin is one of the leading chronic pain researchers today. His major research interests include methodologic aspects of analgesic clinical trials and prevention and treatment of acute and chronic musculoskeletal and neuropathic pain. Dr. Dworkin also has a keen interest in identifying risk factors for the transition from acute to chronic pain and in evaluating interventions that have the potential to prevent chronic pain. A particularly important and actionable finding is that patients with higher acute pain intensity are more likely to develop chronic pain, thus suggesting that effectively managing acute pain might prevent the development of chronic pain. Designing and conducting studies to test this hypothesis has been a major focus of Dr. Dworkin’s efforts.

With over 300 articles in peer-reviewed journals and an h-index of 104, Dr. Dworkin’s works have been cited over 58,000 times.  He is the Director ofACTTION/PASI, a public-private partnership with the FDA to improve the efficiency and informativeness of clinical trials of analgesic, anesthetic, and addiction interventions. Dr. Dworkin is an Associate Editor of Pain and serves on the editorial boards of Canadian Journal of Pain and TheJournal of Pain.  Among many other honors, Dr. Dworkin is the recipient of the John D. Loeser Prize for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in the Clinical Science of Pain from the International Association for the Study of Pain and the Founders Award from the American Academy of Pain Medicine.

Dr. Dworkin on Google Scholar