Apkarian Lab

OpenPain Data Sharing Initiative

We are spearheading the joint NIH, NIDA and NINDS flagship initiative in pain research for brain imaging data sharing. We have already deployed a preliminary web based sharing platform, begun making some of our own datasets available, and reached out to like minded investigators about incorporating additional data sets. Aside from deidentification, all data in unmodified form, all relevant behavioral vectors and human subject information, and scanner information will be available along with a link to published studies. Access will be open for non-profit use, and studies will be available to for-profit entities for a nominal fee which will contribute to upkeep and help groups to allay costs for organizing and uploading their data.

We believe publicly funded brain imaging studies, which are already analyzed and published, should be available and openly accessible. By reducing barriers to entry and risk exposure for new investigators, open access provides an environment that facilitates education and entry of new investigators into the field, encourages innovative thinking, geographically unrestricted collaboration, and the spontaneous emergence of communities self-organized around common goals. Moreover, by providing investigators with the ability to collect and combine datasets from multiple different sites across multiple studies we will create possibilities for new investigations with greater statistical power than anything currently available in pain research. We are thus excited to announce the initiation of OpenPain, and will continue to post progress updates as this initiative matures.