About the Pain Hub

Over the last few decades, medicine has made remarkable advances in extending life and fighting disease. However, living with pain is still a reality for many people. For this reason, the Pain Research Hub gathers together doctors, clinicians and researchers from across the TAU faculties and hospitals, in order to increase collaborative research and develop innovative strategies to better measure and manage pain.

Chronic pain is a significant public health problem and is considered an illness in its own right. The estimated prevalence of chronic pain worldwide ranges between 20-30%, which is more than in diabetes, cancer and heart disease combined. Chronic pain may also evoke secondary and tertiary pathologies in the body's systems, including the musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, digestive and immune systems. An estimated 20% of adults report that pain or physical discomfort disrupts their sleep a few nights a week or more. More than half of all hospitalized patients experience pain in the last days of their lives. Despite the existence of pain relieving therapies for those dying of cancer, research shows that 50-75% of patients die in moderate to severe pain.

The treatment of pain is multidisciplinary and requires a comprehensive and patient-centered approach.

Objectives:

Bring together TAU researchers from all faculties and affiliated hospitals who are interested in pain research and treatment
Promote the understanding of the mechanisms responsible for acute and chronic pain
Promote the provision of efficient pain management for various conditions
Encourage collaborations and submission of grant proposals
Encourage academic education on the subject of pain
Identify additional sources of funding for pain research