Who We Are

The Center for Innovation in Pain Care regroups the Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the Herron Center of Excellence, and the NIH EPPIC-NET Pain Clinical Trials Center within the University of Pittsburgh/UPMC Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine. We have centralized and provided an administrative structure for a myriad of innovative pain management domains to create a multi-disciplinary group where both internal and external stakeholders can convene to share ideas, develop education, and advance best practices in the field of pain management.

Leadership

Directors

Jacques ChellyJacques E. Chelly, MD, PhD, MBA is the founder of the Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine. In the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Dr. Chelly is a Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine (with Tenure) and Orthopedic Surgery and former Director of the UPMC Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine Fellowship. He has over 30 years of clinical trial experience and developed the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine’s Clinical Research Program that has enrolled thousands of research subjects since July 2002. View Dr. Chelly's CIPC projects

Ajay WasanAjay D. Wasan, MD, MSc is Vice Chair for Pain Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at UPMC and a Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine and Psychiatry in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He has particular expertise in interventional procedures, neuropathic pain medications, opioids, psychotropic medication, and the psychiatric co-morbidities of chronic pain. View Dr. Wasan's CIPC projects

Co-Directors

Bradley K. Taylor, PhD is CIPC’s Co-Director of Translational Pain Research and Training. He is a Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and an investigator in the Pittsburgh Center for Pain Research. Dr. Taylor's laboratory investigates the mechanisms through which inflammation or injury produces changes in the peripheral nerves, spinal cord, and brain, leading to a transition from acute pain to chronic pain. View Dr. Taylor's CIPC projects

 Yan Xu, PhD is CIPC’s Co-Director of Basic Science Pain Research and Training. He is Vice Chair for Basic Sciences in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Peter Winter Professor of Anesthesiology, and Professor of Pharmacology & Chemical Biology, Physics & Astronomy, and Structural Biology. Dr. Xu is Program Director of the NIH T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellowship “Research Training in Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine.” The Xu Lab research team is one of the leading groups in the world to combine high-resolution and solid-state NMR techniques to solve membrane protein structures at atomic resolution. View Dr. Xu's CIPC projects

Medical Director

Aman MahajanAman Mahajan, MD, PhD, MBA is Peter and Eva Safar Professor and Chair of the University of Pittsburgh/UPMC Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine. He serves as one of the center’s key contributors. Dr. Mahajan’s clinical expertise is in cardiothoracic anesthesiology, cardiac electrophysiology, and echocardiography. His research focuses on spinal neural modulation of cardiac electrophysiology and the assessment of cardiac function in heart failure.

External Stakeholders