Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • July 16, 2018 • Hartford Business Journal 17 institutions. "That often is the stimulus to not collaborate and get things done at a local level," she said. "That's the bad thing about federal funding for science." CCMC's Zemp- sky said medical research is mov- ing in the direc- tion that will require more participa- tion from both patients and providers. That comes with privacy concerns, though researchers are able to "dei- dentify" data for a given patient. "That's where medicine is going, which is to set up these registries," Zempsky said. "I would hope one day everyone could be part of a deidentified registry." What sorts of Connecticut datasets might Zempsky want to see built? "Maybe we start a registry where patients give a blood sample so we could do genetic typing, then we could look at how genetics determine out- comes of major surgeries," he said. Zempsky, who is also on the board of physicians for Connecticut's medical marijuana program, has a second idea. With more than 26,000 patients now registered in the medical mari- juana program, there's significant potential for mining pain data. It would take collaboration between multiple stakeholders to pull off, but when marijuana patients visit a dispen- sary, they could enter health informa- tion into a tablet. "We can learn their diagnosis, what products they're using and what their outcomes are and we can track those longitudi- nally," Zempsky said. "The data on medical marijua- na is still really in its infancy." Growing spotlight, funding One big challenge for pain research- ers is that available funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been relatively small. Other research disciplines, particu- larly cancer, have dwarfed pain research both in Connecticut and in the U.S. Not many would argue that cancer doesn't deserve big research dollars, but some, includ- ing the American Pain Society, have noted a mismatch between the soci- etal impact of pain and the amount of funding it receives. In 2011, a landmark Na- tional Academy of Medicine report estimated that chronic pain costs as much as $635 billion per year in medical expenses and lost productivity. Mean- while, NIH funding for chronic pain the year the report was released was less than $356 million, growing to nearly $421 million in 2017. The report called chronic pain a "significant pub- lic health problem" that increases morbidity, mortal- ity and disability rates, and is not yet fully under- stood by science." "Many shortfalls in pain assess- ment and treat- ment persist despite humanity's intimate familiarity with pain throughout history, modern appreciation for the complexity of its origins and the diversity of its effects, and the not insubstantial risk that any one person may have serious or chronic pain at some point," the report said. There's some additional hope on the horizon. Earlier this year, NIH an- nounced it would add $500 million to its available funding for research on opioid addiction and pain, nearly dou- bling its 2016 total of $600 million. It was nice timing for Laubenbacher, who at the time the NIH announced the additional money, was already deep in his planning efforts for the pain consortium. UConn researchers are currently involved in pain-related projects that he estimates have around $10 million in NIH funding, Laubenbacher said. "You have to have sharp elbows to carve out your own little niche to be competitive," he said. THE NORTH HOUSE, 1 NOD ROAD, AVON, CT 06001 | (860) 404-5951 | INFO@THENORTHHOUSE.COM | WWW.THENORTHHOUSE.COM PRIVATE DINING PACKAGES Our multiple, exclusive Private Dining Rooms are the perfect place to host your next party or outing. Our historic building can host private parties from 2 to 200 guests for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner, seven days a week. NIH pain research funding in CT As is the case across the country, pain research comprises a small percentage of the total National Institutes of Health funding that comes to Connecticut each year. 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Total NIH funding $476,331,120 $444,604,573 $464,422,776 $461,253,508 $510,609,681 $523,840,659 NIH pain research funding $4,416,864 $2,688,827 $3,984,117 $4,676,699 $2,747,776 $6,081,971 Pain as % of total funding 0.93% 0.60% 0.86% 1.01% 0.54% 1.16% Source: NIH "You have to have sharp elbows to carve out your own little niche to be competitive." Reinhard Laubenbacher , UConn Medical School cell and computational biology professor

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