About MPR

The MPR is a fast-paced, dynamic group that has several projects ranging from investigator initiated to sponsor funded (NIH, PCORI). Our mission is to better understand the transition from acute to chronic pain, perioperative health outcomes, and post-operative pain management. This work will transform care by helping accelerate therapy development and ultimately guide pain prevention strategies.

Acute Pain

Acute pain is one of the most common issues confronting patients recovering at home after surgery. For most people, acute pain resolves as the injury that caused it heals. Yet in many other people, acute pain from an injury, surgery, or disease persists beyond the initial insult, and lasts for years or throughout life. Chronic post-surgical pain (CPSP) is a major cause of new chronic pain, occurring between 10 - 40% after common surgical procedures. The number of people who transition from acute to chronic pain after an acute pain event is high, and this high prevalence of chronic pain in the US has in part contributed to the current opioid epidemic.

Prescription opioid-related morbidity and mortality continues to be a national public health crisis and intersects at all points of clinical care. Post-surgical prescribing is an important contributor to this problem at large. For example, an estimated 72% of patients have excess opioids following outpatient general surgical procedures. Thus, millions of unused tablets contribute to the diversion, misuse, and abuse throughout the community, exacerbating the opioid epidemic in the United States.

MPR Mission

Our mission is to better understand the transition to acute to chronic pain, perioperative outcomes, and post-operative pain management to help accelerate therapy development and ultimately guide pain prevention strategies. 

There are gaps in evidence for what constitutes the best analgesic regimen to relieve pain as patients recover at home after undergoing very common outpatient surgical procedures. To date, no one has evaluated the effectiveness of these options. Our goal is to address this critical gap in the evidence through our work evaluating analgesic regimens, evaluating patient outcomes, and identifying risk factors. This may allow for preventative measures, accelerated therapy, improved pain recovery, and potentially reduce opioid-related morbidity.

This work will transform care by providing evidence on best analgesic regimens for postoperative pain. Through this work we will better understand, predict, and treat the transition of acute to chronic pain. We will also be able to guide pain management strategies to facilitate a reduction in the diversion and misuse of opioids and opioid-related morbidity and mortality.