Dear Colleague,

The UC San Diego Clinical and Translational Research Institute (CTRI) and Nature Medicine would like to invite you to attend the 5th Annual Frontiers of Clinical Investigation Symposium on October 14-16, 2010. The theme for the meeting will be "Pain 2010", which will explore innovative approaches to bridge laboratory investigation and clinical research in pain.

Multi-disciplinary sessions will include basic, translational, and clinical presentations on cutting edge research to provide an integrated approach to understanding the pathogenesis and treatment of pain, as well as novel clinical trial designs for development of new therapeutic agents. This symposium will provide unique insights and tools for optimizing and streamlining clinical investigation from discovery to drug approval.

Please see Nature Medicine supplement on translational medicine and the Metabolism 2009: From Bench to Bedside symposium.

We look forward to seeing you,

Gary Firestein, MD
Juan Carlos López, PhD
Tony Yaksh, PhD

Target Audience

• Early stage researchers that will benefit from the knowledge and experience of senior scientists, and directly establish contacts
• Experienced researchers and scientists that will find a stimulating environment for discussing achievements, in the perspective of an interdisciplinary approach
• Pharmaceutical industry scientists that will collaborate with others interested in decreasing the gap from bench to bedside
• Health professionals that are interested in translational research
• Fellows, post docs, trainees and residents that are interested in the transfer of knowledge from expert scientists to early stage researchers

Objectives

At the conclusion of this course, participants should be able to:

• Describe emerging concepts in clinical investigation and translational research in pain
• Define areas of controversy and provide best evidence for each approach
• Identify innovative approaches to bridge bench to bedside and enhance clinical investigation, including novel clinical trial designs to evaluate new therapeutic agents
• Acquire tools for optimizing and streamlining clinical investigation from discovery to development to application
• Assess pathophysiology of pain pathways in human disease

Needs Assessment

Pain is sometimes referred to as the universal disorder and is an important and costly public health issue (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke - NINDS) . Pain is a signal to pathogenic events, and at its worst, can have a major impact on productivity, quality of life, and well-being (National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases - NIAMS). Pain perception and response are complicated phenomena that can differ greatly among individual patients, even those who apparently have identical injuries or diseases (NINDS). 

Acute pain is typically the result from injury to tissues, fracture, disease, or an inflammatory process. By definition acute pain is of a short duration and the cause of acute pain can usually be easily diagnosed and treated (NIAMS). In contrast, chronic pain is pain that persists for more than three months or beyond the time of normal healing. It can range from mild to very severe and can last weeks, months, or years. The cause of chronic pain is not always clear, but what is known is that chronic pain interferes with productivity and affects quality of life (NIAMS). 

This program meets the California AB487 legislation requiring physicians complete 12.0 hours of Pain Management and Palliative Care continuing medical education.