CHAllenges in Managing and Preventing Pain (CHAMPP) Clinical Research Center

Supervising Faculty: Jessica Merlin, merlinjs@upmc.edu

Contact: Dr. Merlin, merlinjs@pitt.edu

Area of Research: Chronic Pain (and its intersection with other challenges/conditions including substance use, stigma, sickle cell, cancer)

Description of Research: The CHAllenges in Managing and Preventing Pain Clinical Research Center (CHAMPP) is a vibrant and growing research center in the School of Medicine. Housed within the University of Pittsburgh's Division of General Internal Medicine, CHAMPP was founded in 2020 under the leadership of Dr. Jessica Merlin (Director) and Dr. Hailey Bulls (Associate Director). Our mission is to improve health and healthcare for patients with pain by building an interdisciplinary and inclusive collaborative of clinical pain researchers.

Our group includes 3 core faculty and 10 staff members (including students), with an annual budget comprised mostly of NIH grants of greater than $10 million. Our areas of focus include the intersection of pain and opioid use disorder, stigma, behavioral interventions, and special populations including people with HIV, opioid use disorder, cancer, and sickle cell disease.

We require students to commit to two semesters and, if participating in the summer, to stay for the entire year. The time commitment is a minimum of 10 hours per week. We do not offer payment for students, but we work with the student's home department for experiential research credits.

Duties of Students: varies; we require a 10 hour per week commitment and minimum 2 semester (3 semesters if includes summer)

Requirements:

  • Overall GPA of 3.0 or higher
  • 12 credits of Psychology (including current term)
  • STAT 0200/1000/1100 Statistics
  • PSY 0036 Research Methods Lecture
  • PSY 0037 Research Methods Lab

Recruitment Process:

We have a rigorous selection process. We ask students to first provide their CVs and we choose the top CVs for interviews. All staff and faculty who will interact with the student (and sometimes some who will not) meet with the student one-on-one or in small groups. All of the following questions are asked to promote equitable opportunity.

  • Current status (year, major)
  • What are they looking for in a position?
  • Why this lab?
  • Career goals
  • Research experience:
  • Relevant coursework?
  • Academic experience:
  • Lit search
  • Stats
  • Poster
  • Manuscript writing
  • Experience working with individuals with serious illness, older adults, people with substance use
  • Explain commitment level: 10 hours per week on site; volunteer or research credit; at least 2 semesters
  • Explain CHAMPP and duties
  • Explain development in CHAMPP starting with semester of entry level tasks through to complete independence in recruitment, consent, data collection

Expectations:

  • explain that this position puts more responsibility on the student as compared to other group
  • pros: experiences and opportunities (ex: poster presentations, many face to face hours working directly with participants, potential manuscripts)
  • potential cons: requires high level of responsibility and professionalism
  • treat like a job, arrive on time, dress professionally, communicate professionally, participants and other staff with respect at all time
  • Explain presenting and paper opportunities/past student successes

Terms offered: Fall, Spring, Summer

Number of Students: 25

Lab website: https://www.champp.pitt.edu/