Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/885423
A B M P m e m b e r s e a r n F R E E C E a t w w w. a b m p . c o m / c e b y r e a d i n g M a s s a g e & B o d y w o r k m a g a z i n e 47 with an eye for what was meaningful within the work from a massage field standpoint. JC: Why were you able to have such a significant role on a prominent and federally funded massage therapy research study? NM: Part of it was that I happened to be in the right place at the right time and had a basis of knowledge that aligned with study needs. I was already enmeshed in the research environment at the University of Kentucky during my doctoral training and met Elder at a local research conference. Elder happened to be interested in complementary therapies for chronic pain populations and be a researcher in family medicine. The rest of the story actually has a lot of other twists and turns, but the bottom line is that I had the training and skills that meshed with and filled a gap in the research team at the time, and I was able to take the opportunity when it presented itself. While the roles were different, the same can be said for the several community massage therapists who worked on the study as well; there was an opportunity to be involved in a large, NIH-funded study, they recognized and accepted the opportunity, and fulfilled the study requirements. They were valuable members of the study team and reliable in their completion of the necessary tasks. JC: Are you still conducting research? NM: Yes! I am in fact still conducting research, and I am building a massage therapy research program at Indiana University (IU) on the Indiana University– Purdue University Indianapolis campus. I have been at IU for four years now and have developed a cadre of local community therapists who provide the massage treatments examined in my various research studies for chronic pain conditions. In my professor role at the university, I also train undergraduate to doctoral students in research, aging, and theory building. I've had a handful of undergraduate students cross my path who were also massage therapists, and working with them has been great! The IU doctoral program I am affiliated with is in health and rehabilitation sciences—a field with a logical alignment to massage therapy. It is my hope that eventually I will train massage therapists interested in becoming researchers in my lab while they earn their PhD in health and rehabilitation. Our field needs more research, and ideally, future massage research will be conducted by professionals in our field like other applied disciplines such as nursing, physical therapy, medicine, etc. This is a little challenging right now because there are only a few trained massage therapist researchers in positions that make them eligible for, and capable to conduct, large- scale research studies and build research programs, which takes oh-so-much time. Many of the leading massage therapy researchers are from other disciplines, like medicine or nursing, but there are a few of us out here, and hopefully there will be more in the coming years. JC: It seems like another way the chronic low-back pain study is real world is that it provides an example of several ways massage therapists can be a part of research with the appropriate training and/or experience. NM: Sure. Research involvement can include roles as a consultant, liaison, therapist, coordinator, research assistant, investigator, or lead investigator with the right experience and training. The study's progression from conception to completion was concurrent with my development as a massage-therapist-turned-research professional. There are all manner of ways in which massage therapists can get involved with, or train for, various roles in research. In certain cases, particularly for doctoral training, there is even the potential for funding support. Interested potential students just have to inquire about student support or the potential for research or teaching assistantships associated with doctoral programs of interest. That was actually a surprise to me when I was looking into getting my doctorate. The program in which I received my training only admitted students who the program could support, which means my tuition was paid and I was paid a stipend for the research assistance work I provided during my training. It was a win- win situation, and now I am developing massage-focused research programs of my own at a research-focused institution and looking forward to training future massage therapist researchers. Notes 1. US Burden of Disease Collaborators, "The State of US Health, 1990–2010: Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors," JAMA 310, no. 6 (August 14, 2013): 591–608; Christopher J. L. Murray et al., "Disability- Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) for 291 Diseases and Injuries in 21 Regions, 1990–2010: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010," Lancet 380, no. 9859 (December 15, 2012): 2,197–223. 2. William G. Elder et al., "Real‐World Massage Therapy Produces Meaningful Effectiveness Signal for Primary Care Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain: Results of a Repeated Measures Cohort Study," Pain Medicine 18 (2017): 1,394–405. 3. Niki Munk et al., "Intersection of Massage Practice and Research: Community Massage Therapists as Research Personnel on an NIH-Funded Effectiveness Study," International Journal of Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork 7, no. 2 (June 2014): 10–19. Jerrilyn Cambron, DC, PhD, MPH, LMT, is dean of the College of Allied Health Sciences and Distance Education at the National University of Health Sciences and president of the Massage Therapy Foundation. Contact her at jcambron@nuhs.edu. SOMATIC RESE ARCH