The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) includes a number of provisions designed to advance pain research, care, and education, including the creation of the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC) by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). On behalf of HHS, the NIH established the IPRCC to coordinate all pain research efforts within HHS and across other Federal Agencies. The Committee is composed of seven Federal members and twelve non-Federal members, six drawn from the scientific and medical communities and six members of the public and stakeholder groups. The Department of Health and Human Services Secretary will review the necessity of the Committee at least once every 2 years.
As specified in Section 4305(b) of the Public Law 111-148 ("Affordable Care Act (ACA)") the Committee has been asked to:
- Develop a summary of advances in pain care research supported or conducted by the Federal agencies relevant to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of pain and diseases and disorders associated with pain
- Identify critical gaps in basic and clinical research on the symptoms and causes of pain
- Make recommendations to ensure that the activities of the National Institutes of Health and other Federal agencies are free of unnecessary duplication of effort
- Make recommendations on how best to disseminate information on pain care
- Make recommendations on how to expand partnerships between public entities and private entities to expand collaborative, cross-cutting research
