Research Areas
- Ageing
- Anaesthesia, Perioperative Medicine, and Critical Care
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular
- COVID-19
- Dermatology
- Diabetes
- Ear, Nose and Throat
- Gastroenterology
- Genetics
- Haematology
- Hepatology
- Infectious Diseases
- Mental Health
- Metabolic and Endocrine
- Musculoskeletal Health
- Neuroprogressive and Dementia
- Ophthalmology
- Oral and Dental
- Paediatrics
- Pain
- Primary Care
- Regenerative Medicine
- Renal
- Reproductive Health and Childbirth
- Respiratory
- Stroke
- Trauma and Emergencies
NRS Pain developments
NRS Pain/SPaRC 2023 Annual Scientific Meeting
The NRS Pain/SPaRC Pain 13th Annual Scientific Meeting will take place on Friday 24th Nov 2023 at the Apex Hotel, Dundee.
This years' event will be in-person attendance only and we are excited to announce Professor Andrew Rice (IASP President), and Professor Tamar Pincus (Dean, University of Southampton), as this years' Keynote speakers.
Call for Abstracts and Registration (via Eventbrite), will be open as from Aug 2023.
Consultation on NHS Scotland Core Minimum Dataset and Quality Performance Indicators for Pain Services Project aims
Consultation on NHS Scotland Core Minimum Dataset and Quality Performance Indicators for Pain Services Project aims
This project is important in improving service provision for people in Scotland with chronic pain. We have compiled:
- A Core Minimum Dataset, containing the minimum essential information to be collected for all patients attending Pain Services in Scotland; and
- Quality Performance Indicators, with indicative standards relating to selected aspects of service provision, which each Pain Service will be expected to meet
These will help us to provide a better understanding of the various elements of the treatment of chronic pain, at both service and patient level.
Service Level | Patient Level |
The prevalence and societal impact of chronic pain | The availability of and access to pain services |
The demographics and needs of the patient group | The availability of and access to exercise and activity therapies |
The effectiveness of any service provision | The frequency of pharmacy reviews |
The resources that will be required to address any areas for improvement | The personal and societal impact of chronic pain |
The frequency of pharmacy reviews | The availability of and access to pain education for patients |
Meaningful measurement of service quality via the QPIs | |
The use of outcome measures | |
Service evaluations within pain services. | |
The availability of and access to exercise and activity therapies | |
The structure and composition of pain services, and gaps that should be addressed |
How were the Quality Performance Indicators and Core Minimum Dataset developed?
Core minimum dataset (CMD) is based on:
- Validated questionnaires
- Best available evidence
- Previous consultation exercise with NHS clinicians
- Balancing the need for detail with the need for feasibility of collection
- Other issues such as licensing costs and burden of administration were also taken into consideration when developing this dataset
The Quality Performance indicators are based on:
- Best available evidence from research and literature review
- Previous consultation exercise with NHS clinicians
- The main source of evidence for these QPIs is SIGN 136 and the National Prescribing Strategy
In addition, the QPI's were modelled against the four levels of the Scottish Service Model. One of the aims of this project is to reduce the number of patients that use higher level services (e.g. level four services) by implementing more consistent standards at all other levels, and thus to improve efficiency of resource use.
You can see full details of the consultation in the pdf document.
QUantifying the Impact of Chronic pain on engagement in paid worK (QUICK) study
The QUICK study team are currently looking for support to help boost recruitment on their study, particular employers, researchers and policy workers.
The QUICK Study (QUantifying the Impact of Chronic pain on engagement in paid work) is aiming to develop a new research instrument to assess the impact of chronic pain on people’s work. We are currently running a series of focus groups to get patients’ and key stakeholders’ perspectives on how well existing identified instruments and existing qualitative research address people’s experiences of the impacts of chronic pain on work. For our stakeholder focus groups, we are looking for researchers, healthcare professionals, employers, and people who work in the policy setting who have an interest in work-related issues for people with chronic pain/long term conditions and who are based in the UK.
Scottish Pain Research Community 11th Annual Meeting (SPaRC ASM) - video recordings
Welcome Address and Update on National Developments in Chronic Pain
Professor Lesley Colvin; Nicola Rhind
Arthritis Pain: In the balance?
Professor David Walsh
The Role of Executive Functioning Skills in Understanding Chronic Pain Experiences in Adolescents: A pilot study
Dr Line Caes
Clinical Decision Tools for the Assessment of Acceptance of Chronic Pain in Adults: A systematic scoping review
Cassandra MacGregor
Tolerance of Endogenous Opioid Tone Promotes the Development of Persistent Hypersensitivity
Samuel Singleton
Update on National Primary Care Developments in Chronic Pain
Dr Kieran Dinwoodie
Assessing the Association of SIGN136: Management of chronic pain on opioid prescribing rates in Scottish primary health care
Dr Harry Herbert
Sex Differences in the Temporal Relay of Nociceptive Signals
Dr Carol Torsney
Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Session: Pain, people and place
Angela Donaldson-Bruce; Audrey Birt
Datablitz Presentations
What is the Association Between Childhood Adversity and Chronic Pain in Adult Life? A Systematic Review and Analysis
Dr Karen Nicolson
Findings in Nerve and Brain, and Closing Remarks
Professor Claudia Sommer; Professor Lesley Colvin
Successes to date
- A successful proposal to the Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network (SIGN) to produce the first SIGN guideline on chronic pain assessment and management. SIGN Guideline development group established (Chair L Colvin). SIGN Guideline 136: Management of Chronic Pain was completed on time (Dec 2013), and has been well received
- Annual Scientific Meetings: the aim of these is to further the above aims, to showcase Scottish pain research and to develop a strong network of pain researchers in Scotland. We have held seven Annual Scientific Meetings (March 2011 - 2017) to date. These have been attended by around 100 delegates on each occasion, and have allowed presentation of current and recent Scottish research on pain. We have also had keynote lectures from internationally renowned pain specialists, including 5 presidents of the main international pain organisation - the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). This has also generated international interest in developments in Scottish Pain Services, with an invited article in the IASP newsletter last year. Discussions arising from these ASMs have led directly to successful research funding applications
- Filling research gaps identified by SIGN 136. One of these was the use of opioids for chronic pain, an area of growing concern. Through SPaRC, a successful collaboration gained CSO funding to study this. This project is now complete, with a number of presentations at international meetings, and publications in preparation, plus further funding applications in progress to extend this work
Past events
NRS Pain/SPaRC 2022 Annual Scienific Meeting
NRS Pain/SPaRC are delighted to announce their 12th Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM), which will be a hybrid event, taking place Friday 28 October, at the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh.
The Scandinavian Association for the Study of Pain (SASP), Early Career Research prize winners will also be invited to present at the 12th ASM.
- Registration via Eventbrite is now available
- Programme
- SLIDO (Q+A) Guidance
- Posters
- Biography and Abstracts
- Exhibitor Stand - please contact Jacqui Pearson if you would like to book an exhibitor stand
- Conference Recording (Recording password: VevjarS8)
- Photo's (oral presentation winners)
Lunch and refreshments will be provided for all our in-person delegates.
In person tickets will be limited, so please be sure to register your interest early, if you wish to attend in person on the day!
NRS Pain / SPaRC 2021 Virtual Conference
The NRS Pain / SPaRC 11th Annual Scientific Meeting took place on Friday 10 September 2021 via Hopin.
Posters
- Fibromyalgia: Assessment of Exposure to Traumatic Life Events
- A Multidisciplinary Pathway in Primary Care for People with Fibromyalgia: A Test of Change Project
- A Reflexive Account of using an Advisory Group to develop a 'Collected Definition' of Acceptance of Chronic Pain
- Characterisation of touch and pain behavioural phenotypein an Fmr1-/y rat model of Fragile X Syndrome
- Pain Pilot Project
- Using AI Enhanced Social Robots to Improve Children's Healthcare Experiences
- Telephone Pain Management Programme
- Outcomes from people suffering with chronic pain who have accessed our service during 2020-21
- Patient's Experience of using TENS at Home from Intermittent Claudication (IC) Pain
- Establishing relative efficacies of analgesic µ opioid receptor agonists in adenylyl cyclase activity and β -arrestin2 recruitment assays
- Introducing a new model of care: management of patient waiting times in NHSGGC Pain Management Service
- “What matters to you?” Can early pain information sessions (PEIS) improve patient understanding, experience and engagement with pain management services? A comparison of face to face and virtual delivery methods.
NRS Pain / SPARC 10th Annual Scientific Meeting
- Update on National Developments in Chronic Pain - Prof Blair H. Smith
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Abstracts for Research Presentations - to note, abstracts included are those who have agreed for their work to be published.
- Posters:
- Comorbidity of chronic pain, cardiometabolic diseases and depression: prevalence, health outcomes and patient experience - Simin Wu
- Pre-hospital pain management in adults: a service evaluation of the Scottish Ambulance Service - Martin Esposito
- Persistent postoperative opioid use in Europe: A systematic review - Prof Patrice Forget
- Sex-specific genomic-wide association study of multisite chronic pain in UK Biobank - Keira Johnston
- TVR130 and PZM21 developed as biased opioid analgesics with fewer side effects have incomplete efficacy as mu receptor agonists - Emily Edelsten
- Unscheduled Care by People with Advanced Cancer: An analysis of Frequent Attenders in a retrospective cohort study in Tayside - Dr Sarah Mills
- Significant genetic correlations among pain in different body sites- evidence from the UK Biobank - Dr Weihua Meng