# UPENN HEAL - Pain Clinical Trial Network Specialized Clinical Center

> **NIH NIH U24** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2020 · $67,968

## Abstract

Project Summary
The purpose of this grant submission is the proposal of the University of Pennsylvania Health System patient
care structure as a Specialized Clinical Centers (SCC - "Hubs") of the Early Phase Pain Investigation Clinical
Network (EPPIC-Net). EPPIC-Net will serve as the cornerstone of the NIH's Helping to End Addiction Long-
term (HEAL) Partnership. EPPIC-Net will provide a robust and readily accessible infrastructure for the rapid
implementation and performance of high-quality, comprehensive studies of patients with well-defined pain
conditions, and the rapid design and performance of high-quality Phase 2 clinical trials to test promising novel
therapeutics for pain. Using the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania as a Hub and 6 additional centers
that are part of the Penn Health system, studies will be conducted as designed by the expertise of the EPPIC
network which intends to bring intense focus to relatively small numbers of patients with clinically well-defined
pain conditions and high unmet therapeutic needs. Studies may be performed in either adult or pediatric
populations. The Penn SCC expects to be testing novel, efficient study designs including adaptive and platform
designs, validation studies of biomarkers, and biomarker-informed proof of principle or target engagement
studies in phase 2 trials of interventions from academic and industry partners. The Penn site will assist the
EPPIC-Net to make clinical, neuroimaging, biomarker, and preclinical data, as well as biosamples, available
through public access data and biospecimen repositories. It is anticipated that EPPIC-Net will be able to run at
least as five Phase 2 trials concurrently, in addition to deep clinical phenotyping and biomarker validation
studies. The SCC will be expected to work collaboratively with the other SCC as well as the EPPIC-Net
Clinical Coordinating Center (CCC) and Data Coordinating Center (DCC). The Penn-SCC will have ready
access to patient populations with specific pain conditions and have expertise in their characterization. A Penn-
SCC Hub will additionally provide scientific leadership and administrative oversight to its 6 satellite sites
(“spokes”). The current proposal is for the establishment of the Penn-SCC Hub and spokes, and identification
of potential populations but will not include funding for any of the clinical trials to be conducted. This will be
negotiated later in a separate contract with the EPPIC Network and NIH.
The diversity supplement to this trial will allow Kendall Smith, currently in his second year of the Doctoral of
Nursing Practice -Nurse Anesthesia program (DNAP) to actively participate in the process of the development,
conduct, and analysis of clinical trials to be developed in the EPPIC Network. He will bring his interest and
experience with diversity issues in medical care to the overall process. He will also design and complete a
study of patient response to pain treatment comparing subgroups including ma...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10108813
- **Project number:** 3U24NS115691-01S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Michael Alan Ashburn
- **Activity code:** U24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $67,968
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-04-01 → 2021-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10108813

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10108813, UPENN HEAL - Pain Clinical Trial Network Specialized Clinical Center (3U24NS115691-01S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10108813. Licensed CC0.

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