Pain fellowship from neurology

[painballer27]

How feasible is this? Anyone know of neurologists who went on to pain fellowships? Is it significantly more difficult than from other specialties like anesthesia and PM&R?

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[Aldertonghen]

Feasible, and according to my med school seniors who went into pain after neurology- big programs are becoming more accepting of neuro candidates. Much more difficult that gas or PM&R, however- and one needs good letters+4/5 pain related case reports/reviews etc before PGY3. Also hear RITE scores are important.

Some programs like USF, have a significant proportion (like 30%) of their residents going into pain, and these residency programs are ideal for matching. Other neuro friendly programs from what I’ve found are those in Florida -Mayo Jax, UMiami; Minnesota- Mayo Rochester and UMinnesota, and Albany.

 

[sharkbaitwhohaha]

A little off topic, but why do neurology and then pain. It’s the most difficult path, and pain mgmt isn’t remotely similar to being a neurologist.

I feel like there shouldn’t be any overlap between what draws people to neurology and pain management.

Neurology is highly cognitive field, diagnostics and physical exam heavy. While pain management is just meds and injections. Not much intelligence needed other than anatomy.

 

[Thama]

Anesthesia has quite a bit to do with it, as local anesthesia, spinal anesthesia, and nerve blocks are core components of their practice. In training we see anesthesia as the "difficult airway guys" but that's more a function of where most non-surgeons see them on a daily basis plus the kind of hospital where most of us spend med school and residency.

Realistically, if you want to do pain and you have the grades to match anesthesia that's the path you should take.

 

[Aldertonghen]

A little off topic, but why do neurology and then pain. It’s the most difficult path, and pain mgmt isn’t remotely similar to being a neurologist.

I feel like there shouldn’t be any overlap between what draws people to neurology and pain management.

Neurology is highly cognitive field, diagnostics and physical exam heavy. While pain management is just meds and injections. Not much intelligence needed other than anatomy.

I agree. I think one possible answer (not applicable here though) is that neurology is very IMG friendly, while anaesthesia is not (and PM&R isn’t even considered a residency in many countries- so it’s not a feasible choice for many IMGs). So for an IMG by far the easiest way to get into a US pain fellowship is a neurology residency (getting into anesthesia as an IMG is far more difficult than getting into pain as a neuro resident). The majority of neurology pain fellows I’ve seen are also IMGs as a result.

It’s the same with IMGs and NIR. Both rads and neurosurgery are more difficult to get than neuro, so people choose the neuro route.

 

[Bostonspine]

A little off topic, but why do neurology and then pain. It’s the most difficult path, and pain mgmt isn’t remotely similar to being a neurologist.

I feel like there shouldn’t be any overlap between what draws people to neurology and pain management.

Neurology is highly cognitive field, diagnostics and physical exam heavy. While pain management is just meds and injections. Not much intelligence needed other than anatomy.

I disagree if you wanna be good you need to be able to diagnosis know a radic vs lumbar spinal stenosis, multi factorial gait dysfunction vs cervical/thoracic myelopathy, cervical radic vs CTS, neuropathy vs radic, cervicogenic headaches vs migraine, counseling normal recovery times for age related exacerbation, but I suppose if your unskilled it could be pill and shots but those practices have mid levels order the pills and they do the shots efficient but bad medicine