OMB No. 0925-0001/0002 (Rev. 08/12 Approved Through 8/31/2015)
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Provide the following information for the Senior/key personnel and other significant contributors.
Follow this format for each person. DO NOT EXCEED FIVE PAGES.
NAME: Ajay D. Wasan, MD, MSc, MA
eRA COMMONS USER NAME (credential, e.g., agency login): ADW123
POSITION TITLE: Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Departments of Anesthesiology and
Psychiatry; Director of the Pain Medicine Division and Vice Chair for Pain Medicine, Department of
Anesthesiology
EDUCATION/TRAINING
DEGREE
(if
applicable)
Completion
Date
MM/YYYY
University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
BS
05/1989
Anatomy
University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
BA
05/1989
Cultural Anthropology
University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine
MD
12/1993
Medicine
University of Arizona at Tucson
MA
12/1999
Medical Anthropology
Harvard Medical School
MSc
06/2004
Scholars in Clinical
Science Program
INSTITUTION AND LOCATION
FIELD OF STUDY
Board Certified in Psychiatry, American Board of
Psychiatry and Neurology
2002
Psychiatry
Board Certified in Pain Medicine, American Board of
Psychiatry and Neurology
2003
Pain Medicine
A. Personal Statement:
In September, 2013 I began a new position at the University of Pittsburgh as Vice-Chair and Director of
the Pain Medicine Division in the Anesthesiology Department, after leaving a position at Brigham and
Women’s Hospital and being an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. My time is split between
clinical care as a pain medicine physician, administrative responsibilities for the Pain Medicine Division as
well as for improving pain care throughout the UPMC healthcare system, and doing clinical and
translational pain research. I have extensive experience in conducting observational cohort studies and
clinical trials in chronic painful conditions. I have a particular focus on the impacts of psychiatric comorbidity
on pain treatment outcomes, such as with opioid therapy. I also serve on several FDA committees with an
express purpose to improve the methods for conducting pain clinical research studies. On a translational
level my work has focused on understanding the processing of pain in the brain in patients with chronic
pain. The research group I oversee is funded by Federal grants, industry, and private foundations.
B. Positions and Honors
Employment:
• 7/1994-6/1995: Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, Dept. of Surgery
FIRST YEAR SURGICAL RESIDENT
• 7/1995-6/1996: University of California, Davis, Dept. of Orthopaedics
ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY PRE-RESIDENT FELLOW
• 7/1997-6/1998: West Suburban Community Hospital, Oak Park, Illinois, Dept. of Medicine,
TRANSITIONAL RESIDENT
• 7/1998-6/2001: Johns Hopkins University, Dept. of Psychiatry, Baltimore, MD, Dept of Psychiatry,
PSYCHIATRY RESIDENCY
• 7/2001-6/2002: Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Boston, MA, Dept. of
Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine
CLINICAL FELLOWSHIP in PAIN MEDICINE
• 7/2002-4/2007: BWH and Harvard Medical School, Depts. of Anesthesiology and Psychiatry,
INSTRUCTOR
• 4/2007-2013:
Harvard Medical School and BWH, Department of Anesthesiology
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
• 6/2008-8/2013: Harvard Medical School and BWH, Department of Psychiatry
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
• 8/2008-8/2013: DIRECTOR of the SECTION of CLINICAL PAIN RESEARCH, BWH Dept. of Anesthesiology
• 2/2013-8/2013: Harvard Medical School and BWH, Department of Anesthesiology
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
• 9/2013-current: University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Departments of Anesthesiology and Psychiatry
PROFESSOR, and VICE-CHAIR for PAIN MEDICINE, Dept. of Anesthesiology
Other Experience and Professional Memberships:
• 2004-current:
Reviewer for Pain, Pain Medicine, Clinical Journal of Pain, Spine, and the Journal of Pain
• 2008-current:
Section Editor for Pain Medicine
• 2008-2009:
NIH Study Section Member, SBIR Behavioral Interventions, #ZRG1 RPHB-C
• 2009-2010:
Chair, Annual Meeting Program Committee, American Academy of Pain Medicine
• 2009-2013:
Chair, Research Committee, American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM).
• 2010:
NIH Study Section Reviewer, NIDA Cutting Edge Basic Research Program (CEBRA)
• 2010-Current: Co-Chair, Executive Committee, FDA AAACTTION Initiative (Analgesic, Anesthetic,
and Addiction Clinical Trials and Translations Innovations, Opportunities, and
Networks). This is an FDA public-private partnership to design better methods for pain,
addiction, and anesthetic assessment and research methodologies in clinical trials.
• 2010-Current: Member, IMMPACT initiative (Initiative on Methods and Measurement in Pain
Analgesic Clinical Trials). This is an FDA funded group of academic researchers, industry
members, and FDA officials to identify the best methods for pain clinical trials.
• 2011-Current
Member, ALERTT working group (Abuse Liability Evaluation for Research, Treatment,
and Training) of FDA AAACTTION
• 2011-Current
Member, PROTECCT working group (Pain-Related Outcomes Training and Evaluation
for Conducting Clinical Trials) of FDA AAACTTION
• 2013-Current: Co-Chair, Analgesic Comparative Effectiveness and Pragmatic Trials (ACEPT) working
group of the FDA ACTTION Initiative
• 2014-current
Reviewer for New England of Medicine
Honors
• 2001:
• 2002:
• 2007-2014:
• 2015:
Webb Fellowship, Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. This is awarded to an
outstanding psychiatrist doing a consult-liaison psychiatry fellowship.
Lief Fellowship, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dept. of Anesthesia, Perioperative, and
Pain Medicine. A one year, $25,000 fellowship awarded to an outstanding clinical fellow in
the dept. of anesthesia to do research.
Named one of Boston’s “Best Doctors” for pain management and psychiatry by
Boston Magazine, annually
Named one of Pittsburgh’s “Best Doctors” for pain management and psychiatry by
Pittsburgh Magazine
C. Contributions to Science (Selected from 85 peer-reviewed research publications). My work has been
cited over 2150 times, and my h-index is 27. Full bibliographic record is at:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/ajay.wasan.1/bibliography/40798049/public/?sort=date&directi
on=ascending
1. Identifying subgroups of pain treatment responders with a focus on psychiatric comorbidity. This work
includes several observational cohort studies in the context of routine clinical care or a clinical trial:
a) Wasan AD, Michna E, Edwards RR, Katz JN, Nedeljkovic SS, Dolman A, Janfaza D, Isaac Z, and
Jamison RN, “Psychiatric comorbidity is associated prospectively with diminished opioid analgesia
and increased opioid misuse in patients with chronic low back pain,” Anesthesiology. 2015; 123 (4),
p. 861-72 PMC26375824
b) Wasan AD, Ross EL, Michna E, Chibnik L, Greenfield, SF, Weiss RD, Jamison RN, “Craving of
Prescription Opioids in Patients with Chronic Pain: a Longitudinal Outcomes Trial,” J Pain, 2012:
13(2), p. 146-54 PMC3274819
c) Wasan AD, Jamison RN, Pham LD, Tipirneni N, Nedeljkovic SS, Katz, JN, “Psychopathology
Predicts the Outcome of Medial Branch Blocks with Corticosteroid for Chronic Axial Low Back or
Cervical Pain: a Prospective Cohort Study,” BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 2009: 10 (22) p. 1-9.
PMC2652420
d) Wasan AD, Davar G, Jamison RN, “The Association between Negative Affect and Opioid Analgesia
in Patients with Discogenic Low Back Pain,” Pain, 2005: 117: 450-61. PMID:16154274
2. National guidelines for the best methods for conducting pain medicine research, including neuropathic
pain conditions. These activities include the work products from several FDA consensus panels as part
of the IMMPACT and ACTTION initiatives:
a) Dworkin RH, Turk DC, Peirce-Sandner S, Burke LB, Farrar JT, Gilron I, Jensen MP, Katz NP, Raja
SN, Rappaport BA, Rowbotham MC, Backonja MM, Baron R, Bellamy N, Bhagwagar Z, Costello A,
Cowan P, Fang WC, Hertz S, Jay GW, Junor R, Kerns RD, Kerwin R, Kopecky EA, Lissin D,
Malamut R, Markman JD, McDermott MP, Munera C, Porter L, Rauschkolb C, Rice AS, Sampaio C,
Skljarevski V, Sommerville K, Stacey BR, Steigerwald I, Tobias J, Trentacosti AM, Wasan AD,
Wells GA, Williams J, Witter J, Ziegler D, “Considerations for Improving Assay Sensitivity in Chronic
Pain Clinical Trials: IMMPACT Recommendations,” Pain, 2012: 153 (6), p. 1148-58. PMID:
22494920
b) Rowbotham MC, Gilron I, Glazer C, Rice ASC, Smith BH, Stewart WF, Wasan AD, “Can Pragmatic
Trials Help Us Better Understand Chronic Pain and Improve Treatment?” Pain, 2013: 154(5): p.
643-6. PMID: 23541132
c) Walk D, Sehgal N, Moeller-Bertram T, Edwards RR, Wasan AD, Wallace M, Irving G, Backonja M,
“Quantitative Sensory Testing: a Review of Non-Automated Quantitative Methods for Examination
of the Patient with Neuropathic Pain,” Clin J Pain, 2009: 25 (7); p.632-40. PMID: 19692806
3.
Functional MRI studies of chronic and experimentally applied pain (including quantitative sensory
testing). This work studies pain processing at the level of the brain, including central sensitization.
a) Wasan AD, Loggia ML, Chen LQ, Napadow V, Kong J, Gollub RL, “Neural Correlates of Chronic
Low Back Pain Measured by Arterial Spin Labeling,” Anesthesiology, 2011: 115 (2), p.364-74
PMC3286828
b) Loggia ML, Kim J, Gollub RL, Vangel MG, Kirsch I, Kong J, Wasan AD,* Napadow V.* Default
mode network connectivity encodes clinical pain: an arterial spin labeling study. Pain. 2013
Jan;154(1):24-33. *=senior co-authors
c) Kim J, Loggia ML, Edwards RR, Wasan AD, Gollub RL, Napadow V, “Sustained Deep-Tissue Pain
Alters Functional Brain Connectivity,” Pain, 2013: 154(8): p. 1343-51
d) Kim H, Kim J, Loggia ML, Cahalan C, Garcia RG, Vangel MG, Wasan AD, Edwards RR, Napadow
V, “Fibromyalgia is characterized by altered frontal and cerebellar structural covariance brain
networks,” Neuroimage Clin, 2015, Mar 4 (7), p. 667-77, PMID: 25844321
4. Cohort studies of predictors of prescription opioid misuse and interventional trials to improve it.
a) Jamison RN, Ross EL, Michna E, Chen LQ, Holcomb C, Wasan AD, “Substance Misuse Treatment
for High Risk Chronic Pain Patients on Opioid Therapy: a Randomized Trial,” Pain, 2010: 150
(3):p.390-400. PMC2910796
b)
c)
Martel, M.O., A.J. Dolman, R.R. Edwards, R.N. Jamison, and Wasan AD, “The Association
Between Negative Affect and Prescription Opioid Misuse in Patients With Chronic Pain: The
Mediating Role of Opioid Craving,” J Pain, 2013. PMC3877217
Michna E, Jamison RN, Pham LD, Ross EL, Janfaza D, Nedeljkovic SS, Narang SS, Palombi R,
Wasan AD, “Urine Toxicology Screening Among Chronic Pain Patients on Opioid Therapy:
Frequency and Predictability of Abnormal Findings,” Clin. J. Pain, 2007, 23(2): p.173-179
D. Research Support
Ongoing Research Support
PCORI: Pragmatic Clinical Studies and Large Simple Trials to Evaluate Patient-Centered Outcomes
Targeted interventions to Prevent Chronic Low Back Pain in High Risk Patients: A Multi-Site Pragmatic RCT
A 1500 subject RCT to evaluate if early PT +CBT prevents the transition from acute to chronic LBP
Role: Co-Investigator
Delitto (PI)
07/1/15-6/30/20
1R01AR064367
Edwards (PI)
09/1/14-8/31/19
Brain Mechanisms Underlying CBT-Related Reductions in Fibromyalgia
An fMRI study of changes in pain processing with CBT which may precede fibromyalgia pain improvements
Role: Co-Investigator
P01 AT006663-01
Rosen (PI)
09/01/11-08/31/16
Neuroimaging Acupuncture Effect on Brain Activity in Chronic Low Back Pain
A series of treatment studies using Arterial Spin Labeling-assessed neural correlates of treatment responses
Role: Co-Investigator/ Previous Director of the Scientific Core at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for two
years. This is a position considered by NIH as equivalent to obtaining R01 funding.
Completed:
R01 AT005280-01A1
Gollub (PI)
An fMRI Study of Expectancy on Acupuncture Treatment Outcomes in Knee OA
An RCT of acupuncture in knee OA using functional MRI to study expectancy effects.
Role: Co-Investigator
04/01/10-03/31/15
Agency for Healthcare Research Quality (AHRQ)
Jarvik (PI)
07/01/10-12/31/13
Back Pain Outcomes using Longitudinal Data (BOLD)--Registry and Repository
This was a multicenter project to follow an inception cohort of acute and chronic low back pain and to create a
longitudinal registry of treatment outcomes data using electronic health care records.
Role: Co-Investigator
Investigator Initiated Grant, Endo Pharmaceuticals Wasan (PI)
04/01/09-01/31/13
The efficacy of diclofenac gel for the neuropathic components of pain in knee osteoarthritis
This was an open label study of the neuropathic and breakthrough analgesic properties of diclofenac gel.
Role: PI
K23 DA020681-01A1
Wasan (PI)
08/01/07-12/31/12
Oral Opioid Treatment and Psychiatric Comorbidity
This was a mentored clinical research training grant to conduct several opioid studies and fMRI studies in
patients with chronic low back pain and psychiatric comorbidity.
Role: PI