Kathleen Sluka, PT, PhD, FAPTA
Dr. Kathleen Sluka is the project director for this study. Dr. Sluka is a physical therapist with clinical experience, and a Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Science, within the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa. She is also a member of the Neuroscience Institute and Pain Research Program at the University of Iowa. She has published over 200 manuscripts on mechanisms of musculoskeletal pain, and non-pharmacological treatment. She has led initiatives as program director for multiple externally funded trials. These include multi-PI grants within the same and different institutions, multi- site clinical trials, and large-scale implementation studies. Her team recently successfully recruited, retained and completed a large-scale multi-site clinical trial (FAST study), funded as a cooperative agreement with NIH (UM1), that Dr. Sluka served as the project director. Her current implementation study, with Dr. Rakel, is also a large healthcare initiative to incorporate exercise prescription and TENS into primary care for chronic pain, that includes multiple and diverse stakeholders and team members. This project involved significant challenges, requiring her team to develop diverse communication and training approaches. Through this project, the team has also developed educational materials for providers, and for patients for the use of TENS. Thus, Dr. Sluka has unique expertise from basic science to multi-site clinical investigations, which is a rarity. Dr. Sluka brings valuable leadership and oversight for this pragmatic clinical trial.
Dr. Crofford, along with Dr. Sluka leads the FM-TIPS team to ensure completion of the trial.