The International Association for the Study of Pain is proud to announce the winners of the 2021 Early Career Grant Winners, Dr. Kaya Peerdaman and Dr. Sarah Luthy. This grant awards young researchers just starting their careers as independent researchers, and this years’ competitive application cycle featured a record number of applicants.
Dr. Kaya Peerdeman is a postdoctoral researcher and assistant professor at the Health, Medical, and Neuropsychology unit of Leiden University, the Netherlands. Her research focuses on enhancing our understanding of the mechanisms of expectancy, placebo, and nocebo effects on pain and other physical symptoms. Experimental studies are key in her work, bridging fundamental and applied research, and she aims to contribute to improving clinical care and patients’ well-being through harnessing expectancy effects.
Dr. Sarah Luthy is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the University of Cincinnati Department of Pediatrics and attending physician with the Division of Hospital Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Her research goal is to improve pain assessments and management in children with severe neurological impairment. Through her project, “Multidimensional Acute Pain Assessments in Children with Severe Neurological Impairment,” she seeks to identify pain dimensions other than intensity that affect how parents/caregivers of children with severe neurological impairment perceive their children’s pain treatment needs. The results of this work will provide the critical information needed to address barriers to conducting high-quality pain assessments during children’s hospitalizations and form the foundation for designing, validating, and implementing methods to improve acute pain assessments in this vulnerable population.
Congratulations, Dr. Peerdeman and Dr. Luthy! IASP looks forward to hearing about the progress of their research and its impact on the pain community.