Michael Ray @MichaelRayDC

@hjluks Enactiivism and phenomenology argue health is one’s ability to engage life and complete valued projects or activities. link.springer.com/article/10.100…

Pain outcomes question: Is there a defensible citation for what constitutes a clinically meaningful between-group difference in change scores? IMMPACT gives useful benchmarks for within-person pain improvement, but I’m trying to avoid incorrectly applying individual MCID thresholds to between-group contrasts.

BMJ Medical Humanities is accepting submissions for an upcoming Topic Collection: "Medicine, Meaning and Metaphor: Arts and Humanities as essential partners in medical and healthcare training". Deadline: 27th October 2026. More information: bit.ly/4eA2ZvJ #medhums

Another grant submitted — this time an R01. PREPARE Pain is a clinical observational study focused on emergency department patients with acute musculoskeletal injury, with the goal of better characterizing pain trajectories, patient needs, and readiness for intervention. I’m proud of this one. Proud because it reflects years of thinking about how acute pain becomes chronic pain, why some patients recover while others do not, and how emergency care might become an earlier point of identification and support. Proud because large observational work like this is foundational. Before we can build better interventions, we need to understand the people, trajectories, contexts, and needs those interventions are meant to serve. And proud because getting an R01 out the door takes a tremendous amount of work from a lot of people — mentors, collaborators, research staff, grants teams, institutional partners, and community voices. At the same time, it feels strange to celebrate a federal grant submission in the current research funding climate. There is no shortage of uncertainty, constraint, and absurdity in the system right now, and so much important work is being submitted into an ecosystem that feels increasingly unpredictable. But maybe that makes the act of submitting even more meaningful. We keep asking the questions. We keep building the teams. We keep trying to do the work that matters. Very grateful to everyone who helped get this across the line. #PainResearch #EmergencyMedicine #ChronicPain #MusculoskeletalPain #NIH #R01 #ImplementationScience #HealthServicesResearch

Nice write-up on the inappropriate use of MCID — a within-person change statistic that is too often misapplied as a between-group comparator to justify or refute interventions. sites.duke.edu/cemmt/2026/02/… @chadcookpt

📢 Are you an early career researcher? Join an NIGMS webinar to learn about PAR-27-032: Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) for Early Stage Investigators (ESI). 📝It’s easier than ever to apply with a new streamlined funding opportunity format. 📅 July 15 at 2 PM ET No registration required. Participation is optional. Learn more: bit.ly/4uH3jh5

Interested in applying for a career development (K) award? 📝 Learn all about percent effort and support for the designated project director/principal investigator: bit.ly/4e1FQlv

Over the past two years transitioning full-time into research and attending countless grant-writing conferences and workshops, I’ve found myself wondering how many phenomenal ideas simply die on the vine. Like many entering academia, I initially believed that strong questions, rigorous methods, and meaningful potential impact would naturally rise to the top and get funded. But science conducted within human systems is rarely that straightforward. Research funding is still shaped by people, institutions, incentives, timing, networks, communication, and perception. Even with safeguards against bias, we are still operating within systems we constructed ourselves. A well-researched hypothesis paired with a well-designed study does not guarantee extramural funding. Ironically, some of my greatest assets as a researcher came from the decade I spent owning and operating a business. Learning how to market ideas, advocate relentlessly in unstable environments, build relationships, communicate value clearly, and keep moving despite rejection. Maybe that’s the disconnect. Academics aren’t immune from the realities of persuasion and visibility. Our science often doesn’t stand on its own — at least not initially. Maybe the old sales principle applies here too: Always Be Closing. #research #academic #clinician

@ridgewallet Some of the worst customer service I’ve experienced is from @ridgewallet . Automated AI generated responses to order issues. Charged for a power bank that never shipped. Even if the products are amazing, this customer service experience deters future purchases.

IASP endorses the PAINDIFF recommendations for the inclusion and study of sex and gender in pain research, supporting greater rigor, transparency, and reproducibility across preclinical and clinical pain research. Learn more: bit.ly/4dkFk0f

For me, the postdoctoral position at @GWSMHS through the Primary Care Research Training Program has been invaluable. Beyond the mentorship, resources, and connections, it gave me something equally important: time. Time to further establish myself as an investigator, gather preliminary data, and write grants. Since July 2025, I have submitted $1.5 million in grant applications, submitted four manuscripts, had three accepted, and have two upcoming research presentations. None of the grants have been awarded yet, but I’m optimistic that some will be soon. Feeling grateful and hopeful. #research #grants #academic #clinician

@_flixmd Agreed.

I’ll be presenting first-year baseline cohort findings from PREVENT, our emergency department-based study focused on chronic pain prevention. My presentation will focus specifically on social needs burden as an exposure and its relationship with pain-related cognitions, psychological symptoms, and functional outcomes among adults presenting to the ED with acute musculoskeletal pain. The webinar is part of the @IASPpain Pain Education Resource Center session: Advancing Research on the Social Dimensions of Pain: Emerging Evidence and Future Directions May 20 | 7:00 AM You can register here: perc.iasp-pain.org/products/advan… Please also check out the other speakers presenting on this important topic. Hope to see you there!

@MichaelRayDC @TheJournal_Pain Strong framing. The prevalence/burden split is what makes this operationally useful: one tells you where to screen, the other where resources and follow-up capacity will be stressed. Without that second layer, care planning turns into a case-finding exercise.

I spent the past year examining the prevalence, burden, and correlates of chronic pain and high-impact (activity-limiting) chronic pain in the U.S. The study—now in press at @TheJournal_Pain —uses nationally representative data from 2019–2023. Here’s what stood out: 🔹 Chronic pain is increasing Prevalence rose from 20.5% to 24.3%, with high-impact pain increasing from 7.5% to 8.5% 🔹 Age shows the clearest pattern—but chronic pain spans the life course. Prevalence rises with age, but a substantial share of the population with chronic pain is under 65. 🔹 Socioeconomic disadvantage is consistently associated with chronic pain. Unemployment and poverty show strong, independent associations with both chronic pain and high-impact chronic pain. 🔹 Mental health and pain are closely linked. Frequent anxiety and depressive symptoms—and poor self-rated health—are strongly associated, especially for high-impact pain 🔹 High health care contact does not necessarily mean needs are met. Greater health care utilization (ED visits, urgent care, home care) and cost-related barriers (delayed care, delayed prescriptions, medical bill strain) were independently associated with chronic pain. --- A key insight from this work: Prevalence and burden tell different but complementary stories. - Prevalence helps identify who is most affected (e.g., case finding and screening) - Burden shows where pain is concentrated across the population (informing resource allocation and care planning) --- Takeaway: Chronic pain—and especially high-impact chronic pain—is not just a clinical issue. It reflects a broader intersection of mental health, socioeconomic conditions, and health system factors, with substantial unmet need even among those already engaged in care. Grateful to see this work coming to publication in and excited for what comes next. 📄 Pre-proof available at The Journal of Pain: jpain.org/article/S1526-… @GWSMHS @GW_OVPR

Nice vacation surprise!

Yes, this particular investigation examines prevalence and burden as complementary metrics. A primary conclusion: “These findings support a dual priority of screening and case finding in groups with higher prevalence, alongside resource allocation, care planning, and improved affordability and coordination within existing systems of care.”

A key takeaway from my recent analysis of chronic pain and high-impact chronic pain in the U.S.: “Pain-related need is concentrated not only among adults with high health care utilization and affordability barriers, but also within the broader population of adults with chronic pain who are already engaged with the health care system.” Hoping the manuscript will be out soon. #pain #research #epidemiology

Excited to share that I’ll be presenting preliminary results from the PREVENT study at the upcoming @IASPpain Social Aspects of Pain SIG webinar: Advancing Research on the Social Dimensions of Pain: Emerging Evidence and Future Directions Date: May 20 Presentation title: Social Vulnerability and Pain-Related Cognitions in Acute Musculoskeletal Pain: Implications for Early Intervention in the Emergency Department Looking forward to contributing to this conversation. Registration link below for anyone who’d like to attend: perc.iasp-pain.org/products/advan… @GWSMHS #pain #research #academia #clinician #scientist