Center for Innovation in Pain Care News

Two studies investigating the role that auriculotherapy (a form of acupuncture applied to points on the ear) may play as an alternative to opioids for the postoperative management of pain by Jacques E. Chelly, MD, PhD, MBA, and colleagues were recently featured in Anesthesiology News.

Ajay D. Wasan, MD, MSc, was featured in the American Academy of Pain Medicine October 2022 Member Focus article.

Dr. Chauhan’s BIONIC team project won a $25,000 award in the virtual Elevator Pitch Competition and Dr. Emerick’s Vanish project won a $100,000 award as well as a $15,000 Bonus Award for Engineering Good Health.

Ajay D. Wasan, MD, MSc, was featured in a UPMC Community Matters segment that aired on WPXI-TV Pittsburgh on September 5, 2022.

Both committee appointments are for a two-year term and will become effective at the close of the second session of the House of Delegates at the annual ASA meeting in October 2022 and conclude in October 2024.

“Reduction of Opioid Requirement Associated with Auriculo-Nerve Stimulation Following Open Surgery” has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse for four years starting August 1, 2022.

The study, presented at the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care meeting in Milan, Italy, June 4-6, showed that aromatherapy reduced post-surgical opioid use by half in hip replacement patients who were anxious before surgery.

Trent D. Emerick, MD, MBA, FASA, and Ajay D. Wasan, MD, MSc, were named in the specialty of pain medicine in Pittsburgh Magazine’s 2022 “Top Doctors” list, an annually published selection of the region’s top physicians.

The University of Pittsburgh and the Utah corporation nCAP Medical, a company involved in the development of pain relief patches, signed a contract to conduct “A Pilot Study Investigating the nCAP NeuroCuple in Subjects Undergoing Primary Hip Replacement Surgery: A Prospective, Randomized, Open Label Trial” with Jacques E. Chelly, MD, PhD, MBA, as the principal investigator.

Principal Investigator Jacques E. Chelly, MD, PhD, MBA, will receive funding to establish a Center of Excellence with Heron Therapeutics. This multidisciplinary center will be dedicated to education and research related to perioperative pain management with a special focus on non-opioid approaches and minimization of opioid prescription.