# Mentorship of Junior Investigators on HEAL-SKOAP

> **NIH NIH K24** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $323,998

## Abstract

SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The exodus from academic to careers in industry, government and other sectors has been expedited by the
COVID-19 pandemic. Given tight funding pay lines, a shortage and fierce completion for tenured and tenure-
track university/academic medical institution positions and a ‘publish or perish’ mindset, more and more
graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and even residents are looking to leave academic medicine in the
pursuit of more stable and lucrative careers. Junior investigators require support, guidance and training
opportunities to plant the seeds to develop into- and retain established pain scientists. Unfortunately the
current algorithm for mid-career and senior faculty success does not include developing the next generation of
leaders within our challenging field of academic medicine. The current funding mechanism is an outstanding
opportunity for mentors to devote time, effort and funds towards junior investigators interested in a career in
pain scholarship. The current application seeks to provide protected mentorship-focused time for Dr. Claudia
Campbell, an MPI on the ‘SKOAP’ phase III clinical trial. The SKOAP study, a Sequenced-strategy for
improving outcomes in people with Knee OsteoArthritis Pain, is a sequential large-scale HEAL Effectiveness
Research Network study evaluating conservative and nonsurgical procedural interventions for reducing pain
and improving function in patients with KOA. The trial is an excellent platform for the training of junior
investigators from varied disciplines. The SKOAP trial is designed to mimic clinical care by first testing the
effectiveness of conservative treatment and nonsurgical interventional procedures. This large-scale, pragmatic,
comparative-effectiveness study involves comprehensive and innovative approaches that have never before
been employed in this context, providing an exciting learning platform in multiple domains, including: a
multidisciplinary cadre of investigators conducting the largest randomized trial to date to evaluate behavioral,
pharmacologic, and procedural interventions for KOA; a step-care, factorial design model that allows for more
than two dozen pair-wise treatment comparisons; phenotyping to improve selection for each therapy (i.e.,
precision medicine), which is expected to refine outcomes and reduce unnecessary interventions; integration of
a psychosocial intervention WITH medication treatment; a novel design; longitudinal follow-up period;
personalized medicine approach; an innovative flexible approach to sample size; deep integration into
standard of care and the clinical environment; multiple recruitment sites and a collaboration with multiple
groups to support the study, including a number of ICs at NIH, primarily NIAMS and NCATS, a Clinical
Coordinating Center (at Duke), Data Coordinating Center (at Utah), Recruitment and Retention support (via
Vanderbilt and the Duke Call Center) and startup support within Johns Hopkins (Bios/Trials Innovati...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10426755
- **Project number:** 1K24AR081143-01
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Claudia Michelle Campbell
- **Activity code:** K24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $323,998
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-24 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10426755

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10426755, Mentorship of Junior Investigators on HEAL-SKOAP (1K24AR081143-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10426755. Licensed CC0.

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