IMI Pain Care Consortium Berlin

Professor Barry O’Reilly and Paula Hick from the ASSERT Centre, UCC, attended the IMI Pain Care consortium meeting, titled “Improving the care of patients suffering from acute or chronic pain”- an EU international initiative on pain, in Berlin on the 19th-20th of March.

The IMI-Pain Care Consortium is composed of 40 participants from 14 countries; 6 are EFPIA members (European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations) with strong traditions in pain research and development, 23 are internationally renowned academic and clinical institutions, 5 are specialist SMEs with cutting-edge technologies, 3 are patient organizations and 3 are professional pain/anesthesia societies.  UCC is participant number 27, WP9 under Professor Barry O’Reilly who has significant clinical and research experience in (BPS) will collect data as defined by ESSIC criteria, and contribute to the interpretation of findings.

The overall aim of this study is to identify pathways responsible for pain in these women and determine whether we can divide them into subgroups on the basis of different pain pathways that might therefore respond to different treatments. Ultimately, the hope is to identify new targets for treatment and contribute to the design of more personalised treatment plans for women suffering from chronic pelvic pain.