About
The University of Utah Program to Provide Pain Research Knowledge (UP3RK) welcomes applications for post-doctoral training to prepare the next generation of interdisciplinary pain researchers. UP3RK is currently accepting applications on rolling basis.
UP3RK’s mission is to impart the science knowledge, skills, and core competencies needed by post-graduate, interdisciplinary Scholars to address the nation’s scientific needs in clinical pain research.
Program Scholars are paired with senior mentors to guide Scholars through their individual training plans.
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Our Mission
To impart the science knowledge, skills, and core competencies needed by post-graduate, interdisciplinary Scholars to address the nation’s scientific needs in clinical pain research.
UP3RK Objectives
Objective 1: Recruit and support a diverse and interdisciplinary group of clinical pain research Scholars with particular emphasis to attract scholars underrepresented in medicine and clinical research, and those with diverse career paths and clinical backgrounds.
Objective 2: Provide a state-of-the-art training environment and curriculum to develop the next generation of clinical pain researchers with emphasis on the UP3RK focus areas; nonpharmacological pain treatments; effective interventions for pain and co-morbidities, particularly SUDs; implementation science; and research within vulnerable, diverse, and underserved populations.
Objective 3: Provide Scholars with opportunities to improve the impact of their clinical pain research careers and achieve independent research support within 5 years of completing the UP3RK program by developing career development and programmatic skills (e.g., technical, operational, professionalism, communication skills) and interdisciplinary research skills (e.g., working with an interdisciplinary research team).
Training
UP3RK is situated at the University of Utah (UU), a rich environment to train interdisciplinary Scholars on clinical pain research in diverse settings. UP3RK training focuses on our institutional strengths of:
- Nonpharmacologic pain treatment
- Effective interventions for pain and co-morbidities, particularly substance use disorders
- Implementation science
- Research with diverse and underserved populations
Annually, UP3RK supports five Scholars—within a two-year training duration—through dedicated UP3RK Mentors within an innovative, multi-level mentor model (Mentor Matrix Model) that has proven extremely successful in developing independently-funded investigators who remain in academic research careers.
The UP3RK trains our Scholars in:
- In our four focus areas
- Career development and programmatic skills
- Interdisciplinary research skills.
UP3RK’s emphasis on communication, grant writing, and team science at all levels equip our Scholars with key knowledge, skills, and abilities to advance innovations to improve health for persons with chronic pain and enable a transdisciplinary approach to team science. To accomplish our mission, we leverage new and existing local training curricula and national trainings available from the HEAL PAIN Cohort Program. We evaluate UP3RK training activities through a dedicated evaluation process. The research environment and novel training opportunities available through the UP3RK will facilitate achieving these objectives and ensure the program develops Scholars with the characteristics of successful, independent clinical pain researchers.
Our Team
Principal Investigators
Julie M. Fritz
Dr. Julie Fritz is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy & Athletic Training at the University of Utah. Dr. Fritz’s research career has focused on developing and evaluating nonpharmacologic interventions for patients with chronic pain. She is currently a Principal Investigator for clinical trials investigating nonpharmacologic interventions for persons with chronic musculoskeletal pain funded through the NIH-VA-DoD Pain Management Collaboratory, the NIH HEAL Pragmatic and Implementation Studies for the Management of Pain to Reduce Opioid Prescribing (PRISM) and Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) programs, PCORI, and the Department of Defense.
Adam Gordon
Dr. Adam Gordon is excited to be an MPI and co-Director on the “University of Utah Program to Provide Pain Research Knowledge (UP3RK)” that will train the next generation of pain investigators. Drs Fritz and Gordon have collaborated on multiple projects and, importantly, been a mentor for junior scholars. Dr. Gordon has a 25+ year track record of conducting research on the quality, equity, and efficiency of health care for vulnerable populations, including those with co-occurring pain and substance use disorders. His professional mission is to improve the access and quality of care of patients who have vulnerabilities, including those with addiction disorders and co-occurring pain syndromes.
Our mentors
Mary Jo Pugh
Dr. Mary Jo Pugh is excited to be a mentor on the “University of Utah Program to Provide Pain Research Knowledge (UP3RK)” that will train the next generation of pain investigators. Over the past 20+ years Dr. Pugh’s research funded by the VA, DoD and NIH has focused on complex comorbidity, and more recently complex comorbidity in Veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Major components of that complex comorbidity include pain, substance use disorder and mental health conditions. She has conducted foundational longitudinal epidemiological research identifying phenotypes of pain and pain treatment and associated outcomes using large database, clinical evaluation, biological and neuroimaging biomarkers, longitudinal survey, and ecological momentary assessment.
JD Smith
Dr. JD Smith is an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences, Division of Systems Innovation and Research, Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah. He is an implementation scientist and clinical psychologist. The primary focus of Dr. Smith’s research is developing and applying novel research methodologies to test implementation of evidence-based interventions in healthcare and community-based delivery systems, particularly for populations and in settings and systems with marked health disparities. He is well prepared to serve as a Mentor on Drs. Julie Fritz and Adam Gordon’s University of Utah Program to Provide Pain Research Knowledge (UP3RK) training program.
Jake S. Magel
Dr. Jake S. Magel is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy & Athletic Training in the College of Health at the University of Utah. He has over 15 years of clinical experience specializing in the management of patients with complex chronic orthopedic conditions and in the management of patients with musculoskeletal conditions who take prescription opioids for pain management. Dr. Magel's research career has focused on developing and refining interventions for patients with musculoskeletal pain. He is currently a Principal Investigator for an NIH funded clinical trial investigating the integration of physical therapy with mindfulness-based interventions for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain and long-term opioid treatment.
Jerry Cochran
Dr. Jerry Cochran is a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Epidemiology at the University of Utah and serves as the Director of Research for the Program on Addiction Research, Clinical Care, Knowledge, and Advocacy within the Division of Epidemiology. He also has an adjunct Professor appointment within the University of Utah School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and is core faculty with the Informatics, Decision-Enhancement and Analytic Sciences Center of Innovation within the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System. Dr. Cochran has extensive expertise in clinical-level behavioral health services research. His experience has focused on development and testing of evidence-based practices for addressing opioid misuse, use disorder, and related health conditions and outcomes—with particular emphasis on perinatal opioid use disorder. The majority of funding for his work has come from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the state of Utah.
Molly B. Conroy
Dr. Molly Conroy is a practicing primary care physician, academic leader, and clinician investigator with the requisite qualifications to serve as Co-Primary Mentor to Dr. Halliday in the proposed K01 project. She is a Professor of Medicine and Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine (DGIM) at the University of Utah (UU), where she is also the John Rex and Alice C. Winder Presidential Endowed Chair in Internal Medicine and an Adjunct Professor of Health Sciences, Division of Health System Research Innovation and Research. Throughout her career, Dr. Conroy has mentored medical students, residents, fellows, and early career faculty in their research projects and in leadership development. She has more than 18 years of continuous extramural funding to lead research focused on maintaining healthy weight, increasing physical activity, and improving cardiovascular risk profiles, with a special emphasis on pragmatic randomized controlled trials conducted in routine clinical care settings.
Paul Estabrooks
Over the past 20 years, Dr. Paul Estabrooks has developed strong expertise in applying dissemination and implementation science (DIS) methods and models across a range of content areas. Currently, he is working as: (1) an MPI for projects on implementation of rapid genome sequencing in the NICU (NCATS), obesity prevention in American Indian children (NCI), integration of social determinants screening and resolution in tobacco cessation (NCI), (2) a co-investigator overseeing DIS aspects of the integration of brain injury screening in organizations providing services to women experiencing intimate partner violence (NINDS), childhood obesity treatment in rural communities (CDC), reduced sedentary behavior in the workplace (NCI), and diabetes prevention in rural communities (NIDDK), and (3) a mentor on 2 K-awards focused on physical activity promotion post stem cell transplant (NCI) and integration of rapid genome sequencing in the NICU (NHGRI).
Akiko Okifuji
Akiko Okifuji, PhD is Professor of Anesthesiology, Division of Pain Medicine, at the University of Utah. She is a licensed clinical psychologist who is specialized in pain management. She is also a pain researcher. She has been a principal investigator and co-investigator of various federal and locally funded projects in pain medicine.Her current research interests include rehabilitative approaches to fibromyalgia, weight management in chronic pain, women’s health and chronic pain, the cost-effectiveness of multidisciplinary pain care approaches, psychosocial and psychophysiology of opioid use/taper, and cognitive-behavioral aspects of chronic pain.
UP3RK Evaluation Domains
UP3RK Logic Model
Please contact kristi.carlston@hsc.utah.edu with inquires.