Research Assistant Professor, Non-Pharmacologic and Integrative Approaches to Acute Pain in Emergency Care

The Ohio State University College of Medicine and the Wexner Medical Center seek a research faculty member to join the Department of Emergency Medicine at the rank of Research Assistant Professor. The position sits within Population Health and Health Services (Health Now), the department's emergency department (ED) based population health research program, and focuses on non-pharmacologic and integrative approaches to acute pain in emergency care.

Research Assistant Professor, Non-Pharmacologic and Integrative Approaches to Acute Pain in Emergency Care. The Research Assistant Professor will develop and lead a line of research on complementary, integrative, and non-pharmacologic interventions for patients treated in the ED, with a primary focus on acute pain. Pain is the most common reason people come to an ED, and treatment still depends on a small set of medications, several of which carry risk of misuse.

Approaches such as mindfulness-based interventions and virtual reality have a growing evidence base in outpatient and chronic pain settings, but much less is known about whether they can be delivered during an ED visit, which patients will engage with them, and how to measure that engagement in a short and often interrupted encounter.

The successful candidate will work across emergency care, pain research, behavioral intervention, and implementation science. The position is embedded in an established ED research infrastructure that has run federally funded recruitment, enrollment, and longitudinal follow-up in this department for years, including an NIH/NINDS-funded prospective cohort study of acute pain (MODEL-pain). The candidate will be expected to build a program of research that complements the department's existing work on acute pain and opioid decision-making while remaining scientifically distinct from it.

The Research Assistant Professor will design and lead clinical studies of non-pharmacologic pain interventions in the ED. This includes intervention development and adaptation for the ED setting, feasibility and pilot testing, and the development and psychometric evaluation of ED-specific measures. They will prepare and submit competitive extramural grant applications, including NIH career development (K) and research project (R-series) awards, and will manage funded projects in line with sponsor and institutional requirements.

They are expected to publish in peer-reviewed journals and present at national and international meetings. The role also includes contributing scientific expertise to ongoing departmental studies of acute pain, such as study design, data analysis, regulatory submissions, and first-author manuscript leadership.

The position involves mentoring and supervising students, trainees, and research staff, and working with collaborators in the Department of Emergency Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Public Health, the College of Pharmacy, and the OSU Center for Integrative Health. Service responsibilities include participation on departmental and institutional committees, teaching, and clinical implementation related to the program of research.

• PhD or other research doctorate in public health, behavioral science, health services research, nursing, psychology, or a related field.
• Postdoctoral research training in emergency care, pain, behavioral intervention, or population health research.
• MPH or equivalent graduate training in epidemiology and biostatistics is preferred.

• Demonstrated experience developing and testing mindfulness-based or other behavioral or integrative health interventions, including pilot or randomized controlled trial designs.
• Experience conducting clinical research with patients in the ED or other acute care settings, including recruitment, enrollment, and follow-up.
• Experience with non-pharmacologic approaches to pain, including digitally delivered interventions (for example, tablet-based or virtual reality delivery).
• Experience working on NIH-funded research and evidence of progress toward independent funding, such as a submitted or in-preparation career development award.
• Experience mentoring or supervising students and research staff.
• Evidence of effective collaboration on interdisciplinary research teams.

• Qualitative and mixed methods, including focus groups, individual interviews, and thematic analysis.
• Instrument development and psychometric…