School Of Medicine
Daniel Carr's Bio
PREP Program

Boston, Mass – Tufts University School of Medicine has launched the first master’s degree program in pain management. This new pain management program, Masters of Science in Pain Research, Education and Policy, represents Tufts' move to support the importance of learning about and understanding pain as a medical discipline.

   “There is a growing concern that pain, as a medical focus, has been ignored in the medical field”, according to Dr. Daniel B. Carr, professor of anesthesiology at Tufts University School of Medicine and a well-known researcher in pain. “Although pain research at the clinical level has advanced enormously in the past, healthcare has not kept pace in incorporating pain management in clinical training. As a result there is a growing international concern with the undertreatment of pain.”

   The Masters of Science in Pain Research, Education and Policy program offers courses in the mechanisms of pain, the pharmacology of pain treatment, and social and cultural implications of pain, ethics and regulatory policies. Students of the program include doctors, nurses, dentists, hospice workers, psychologists and others. It is also the culmination of the widespread interdisciplinary pain research, advocacy and education the university has been involved in for decades in the schools of medicine, veterinary medicine and dental medicine.

   "Tufts' new degree is a collaborative effort, involving Tufts' medical school, New England Medical Center's departments of nursing and anesthesia, the Division of Clinical Care Research, and Tufts Schools of dental medicine, veterinary medicine and nutrition," said Dr. Kathryn Lasch, program co-director and a social scientist with the Health Institute at the New England Medical Center, Tufts primary teaching hospital. “Graduates of this program—which is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation—will be prepared for educational, research, and advocacy positions in a variety of health care agencies and organizations that include the relief of pain as part of their mission.”

   The new program, which recognizes Tufts University's dedication to the study of pain, has brought together nationally and internationally recognized scientists and clinicians with expertise in pain research and education to focus on pain from a patient's perspective.

   Other examples of work going on at Tufts in pain and pain management:

   Cultural views on pain and its treatment vary widely and Dr. Kathryn Lasch has devoted many years to studying the cultural aspects of this discipline. Working with a grant from the National Cancer Institute, she and others developed culturally sensitive pain education booklets in eleven languages for eleven ethnic groups.

   The Gelb Pain Center of Tufts University School of Dental Medicine is devoted to the diagnosis and management of Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ) pain and chronic head, neck and facial pain and teeth grinding. One of the largest centers of its kind in the United States, it incorporates a true multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of complex pain problems. Dr. Nosher Mehta has developed a method for treating this condition that incorporates the most current research and technology in TMJ treatment and chronic oral pain.

   Landmines continue to be in the news, wreaking havoc indiscriminately in war torn countries worldwide. Dr. Mark Pitkin, the founder of the International Institute for the Prosthetic Rehabilitation of Landmine Survivors (IPRLS), that treats and rehabilitates amputee landmine victims with medical complications works with patients who are experiencing phantom pain, pain felt in the part of the limb that has been amputated. Through his work, he is bringing the latest in pain technology, treatment and education to those victims.

   Reserchers at the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine are conducting research projects on pain in animals. Dr. Alicia Karas, assistant professor of anesthesiology at Tufts’ Vet School is leading a one-year clinical study identifying and clarifying how animals indicate they are in pain. Dr. Karas is recording both subjective symptoms of pain, such as facial expression, ability to walk on affected limbs, algometer (an instrument which can help determine an individual’s pain threshhold). The findings, due in January, will advance pain knowledge for veterinarians as well as researchers working with lab animals. In another study, veterinary researchers are looking at post-operative pain in mice. The goal is to construct a pain model indicating how long an animal experiences pain from certain research procedures, and which procedures require more pain treatment than others.