Monday, October 07, 2013

Kathleen A. Sluka has been appointed as the Kate Daum Professor.  The endowed professorship was established by the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine to recognize outstanding women scientists and is given once every four years.  The professorship honors Kate Daum, PhD, who directed the UI Nutrition Department 1927-1955 and helped pave the way for female scientists at the UI.  Sluka has spent her career studying basic mechanisms of musculoskeletal pain and the neurobiological mechanisms of non-pharmacological pain therapies.  She developed a unique animal model of enhanced hyperalgesia, which has been central to increasing our knowledge of chronic musculoskeletal pain.  In addition, she has extensively studied the effects of non-pharmacological treatments for pain control in human subjects affected by several different pain conditions, including fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, and postoperative pain, as well as in healthy controls. She has received over $7.25 million in extramural research funding, including several National Institutes of Health grant awards. 

Sluka has been an advocate for improved guidelines and standards for pain education and was recently part of an interprofessional group to develop competencies in entry level pain education.  She took a sabbatical in 2009 to write a book, "Pain Mechanisms and Management for the Physical Therapist," an evidence-based textbook on basic science mechanisms, physical therapy treatments, interdisciplinary care, pain syndromes, and case studies, published by the IASP Press.  In addition to her classroom teaching, Sluka has been a member of 20 doctoral degree committees, mentored 12 postdoctoral scholars as well as many undergraduate students, doctor of physical therapy, and medical students.

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