Editor’s note: This is the second in a planned series of weekly PRF seminars to help keep the pain research community connected during the COVID-19 pandemic and to provide all members of that community with virtual educational opportunities. These seminars are funded by the Center for Advanced Pain Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas, US, which we thank for its generous support. Additional seminars will be announced shortly.
The IASP Pain Research Forum hosted a seminar with Nadia Soliman, PhD candidate, Imperial College London, UK, on May 11, 2020, noon-1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (US)/5-6 p.m. BST/6-7 p.m. CEST. The seminar was moderated by Jan Vollert, PhD, Medical Faculty Mannheim of the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, Germany.
A recording of this seminar will soon be freely available to IASP members at the IASP Pain Education Resource Center (PERC).
Here is an abstract of the seminar provided by the presenter:
In response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, many institutions have had to close their wet labs. Systematic reviews are vital research tools for evidence synthesis, and while recognized to have a complex, time-sensitive, and resource-intensive process, in the current crisis they offer an opportunity for professional and research development. These reviews are designed to address a specific research question, using predefined methods to identify, select, and critically appraise all available and relevant research in an unbiased manner. They are effective at consolidating the high-volume, rapidly accruing, and often conflicting research on a specific topic. However, in preclinical research their use is still relatively novel. This is in part due to the time they take to complete, weakening their usefulness. This problem is exacerbated by the exponentially increasing number of publications. However, there are many advantages to conducting systematic reviews of animal studies. Specifically, they can provide empirical evidence to identify knowledge gaps and to support improvement of methodological quality of studies, choice of animal model, and translation of animal data to the clinic.
The aim of this seminar is to demonstrate the importance and utility of preclinical systematic reviews and meta-analyses, contextualized to challenges of pain research in animal models; address feasibility concerns; and provide guidance for the conduct of preclinical systematic reviews.
About the presenter
Nadia Soliman has a BSc (Hons) in pharmacology, an MSc in drug discovery skills, and an MRes in cellular and molecular biosciences. She is now in her second year as a PhD candidate at Imperial College London, UK. Her PhD is focused on developing automation technologies to improve the feasibility, efficiency, and accuracy of preclinical systematic reviews while addressing neurobiological questions of interest. As part of the IASP Cannabinoid Task Force she is currently leading the preclinical systematic review, “Systematic review and meta-analysis of studies in which cannabinoids were tested for antinociceptive effects in animal models of injury-related or pathological persistent pain,” and is using crowd science. This systematic review will provide empirical evidence to improve the field of pain and studies of cannabis-based medicine in animal research, improve the use of machine-assisted technology, and show how to employ a crowd of scientists from around the world to ensure that research conduct is rigorous, interpretable, open, and transparent. She also has an interest in sharing her military experiences and knowledge of leadership development to engender a more positive research culture.
About the moderator
Jan Vollert is a bioinformatician with a PhD in neurophysiology from the Medical Faculty Mannheim of the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, Germany. His research focuses on the application of statistical and computational models in pain research, mainly in quantitative sensory testing. He has conducted analyses of quantitative sensory testing data from patients suffering from neuropathic pain; these analyses have been widely acknowledged in the field. He is a member of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and its Neuropathic Pain Special Interest Group (NeuPSIG), where he works on public outreach and trainee representation. He has been an invited speaker at congresses of the IASP, NeuPSIG, and the European Pain Federation.
Join the conversation about the seminar on Twitter @PainResForum #PRFSeminar
