Pain fellowship as a neurology resident

[Nonphysiologic]

Hey guys,

Pleased to let the forum know I've accepted an out of match offer at an ACGME pain fellowship. I interviewed at 8 programs total at some real good programs but I took the out of
Match offer because I like the program and just wanted to control my own fate a bit.

Anyways I just wanted to announce myself as a source for other neuro residents that would like to apply for pain. I didn't have much guidance at all and didn't really know who to ask because there are so few neurologists that do pain unlike our anesthesia and pmr counterparts.

Pain is extremely competitive, up there along with GI and CARDS and it's even harder as a neurologist. That being said I was pretty much a below to average med student and resident my whole life until my pgy3 year but I was still able to pull it off.

I think the field is pretty open to neurology and its opening up more and more. I think there aren't many neurologists doing it also because frankly most neurologists can imagine the idea of having chronic pain patients daily. These are the most difficult and least satisfying patients in residency clinic and neuro has so many fascinating subspecialties.

Anyways just briefly, this is what you need to do to match:

1. This is the only fellowship to require RITE scores. Try to do excellent pgy3 year. It's a stupid exam and all you need to do is study the old pictures.

2. You need to fluff the CV with case reports/abstracts/review articles. Nothing too big but a couple of PAIN RELATED case reports abstracts will help. Thankfully there's a lot of headache facial pain we see in residency and believe it or not after pgy2 year most neuro programs are chill and you can really start pumping out the cases and review articles like I did.

3. You need letters from anesthesiology pain faculty

4. Start early and let people know you're interested in your home institution.

5. Apply broadly. You'll be surprised at how many programs will be interested in neuro.

I felt a lot of the advice I was getting before was from people of the non Match and ERAS era which I think has made things even more competitive.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[BDBRAINDOC]

Hey thanks for the update. I am a neurology resident who is interested in Interventional pain. I will be more than grateful if you can kindly provide me your contact info (may be an email) so that we can communicate one and one and ask more relevant questions. I am still fairly early in my training in Neuro. Thanks a lot for sharing.

 

[WashingtonR]

M3 here with a strong interest in Pain Medicine. As a residency, I'd much rather do Neurology than Anesthesia or PM&R. How much of a disadvantage will I be at trying to match from neurology?

 

[xenotype]

M3 here with a strong interest in Pain Medicine. As a residency, I'd much rather do Neurology than Anesthesia or PM&R. How much of a disadvantage will I be at trying to match from neurology?

Neuro programs that own the interventional pain fellowship exist, and going to one is a massive, massive leg up to getting or even having the option of doing pain. Internal candidates are generally preferred for at least a portion of the spots.

 

[WashingtonR]

Neuro programs that own the interventional pain fellowship exist, and going to one is a massive, massive leg up to getting or even having the option of doing pain. Internal candidates are generally preferred for at least a portion of the spots.

Thanks for the advice. Can you point me to any lists/resources that identify these programs?

 

[xenotype]

Thanks for the advice. Can you point me to any lists/resources that identify these programs?

Pain forum would know the options better- the only two programs I have heard of are in Florida. Another trick would be programs where some of the main faculty are neurology.

 

[futureSuperStar]

@Nonphysiologic does being boarded in neuro after completing pain fellowship affect your ability to get hired when it comes to getting your first job? After perusing some employment websites with pain job listings it seems like a lot are seeking only anesthesia or PM&R trained pain docs.

 

[SeniorWrangler]

Non-anesthesia pain docs get paid a lot less than anesthesiologists for some reason. The discrimination is real.

 

[CanDoIt66]

Non-anesthesia pain docs get paid a lot less than anesthesiologists for some reason. The discrimination is real.

For 1:1 work? Could it be that anesthesia is able to retain leverage of their peri-op, op, post-op abilities as anesthesia? Not like in an egregious way but in a more insidious way due to the nature of their training and how the pain speciality has been crafted?

 

[SeniorWrangler]

I am 100% sure that it's related to anesthesia being a surgical speciality.