Damon Seils

The LungSMART research team conducted a bilingual messaging study and usability assessment to evaluate and adapt the study’s digital health content for patients in community health centers in Utah. The […]

APA-SM is an NIH Collaboratory Trial testing a 4-week auricular point acupressure telehealth intervention for self-management of chronic pain in rural communities in South Carolina and Texas. The study also includes implementation outcomes, a cost-effectiveness analysis, and an evaluation of predictive factors for treatment response.

LungSMART is an NIH Collaboratory Trial testing telehealth interventions designed to address barriers to completing lung cancer screening among patients receiving care in safety net community health centers in Utah. The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends annual lung cancer screening for adults aged 50 to 80 years who are current smokers or who have quit within the past 15 years.

Congratulations to Fan Li, associate professor of biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health, for receiving the Early Career Research Excellence Award from the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) and the Emerging Leader Award from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS).

Participation in telehealth-delivered, mindfulness-based group medical visits led to significant improvements in pain intensity and pain interference among patients with chronic low back pain in the OPTIMUM pragmatic trial.

The NIH Office of Disease Prevention will continue its Methods: Mind the Gap webinar series on July 29 with “From Working Models to Reliable Evidence: Robust and Efficient Analysis of Cluster-Randomized Trials.” Dr. Bingkai Wang of the University of Michigan School of Public Health will lead the session.

The increasing presence of AI in healthcare settings and the use of AI tools in clinical trials raiss questions about how these tools can be rigorously evaluated to generate the best evidence base for their potential benefits and harms. At the NIH Collaboratory's 2026 Annual Steering Committee Meeting, we spoke with Jeremy Sugarman and Adrian Hernandez about AI, research ethics, and the role of pragmatic trials in evaluating new technologies.

EquiP PC, an NIH Collaboratory Trial, will test an adapted behavioral health integration toolkit to improve chronic pain care. The trial will assess reduced pain interference, improved integrated behavioral health, and implementation success with the goal of expanding access to high-quality, team-based chronic pain care in primary care settings.

Three studies from the first cohort of NIH Collaboratory Trials in pain management supported through the NIH HEAL Initiative are nearing completion. At the NIH Collaboratory's 2026 Annual Steering Committee Meeting, we asked investigators Natalia Morone, Andrea Cheville, and Ardith Doorenbos to reflect on their experiences in the program and to share lessons for other researchers starting their own pragmatic trials.

Having patients and other research partners at the table during the planning of dissemination strategies is key to sustaining effective interventions and driving practice change. At the NIH Collaboratory's 2026 Annual Steering Committee Meeting, we spoke with Hayden Bosworth and Cherise Harrington about the value of planning for and following through on dissemination in pragmatic trials.