new ACGME 2007

new acgme bylaws/policies whatever you want to call it- (i.e.) anyone primary care specialty can sit for the pain medicine boards- and I know that Drusso had mentioned that he knew of at least two people who already had- they just weren't board certified, or?

On this note, and considering the multidiscipinary trend and advocacy of the filed- do the veterans on this forum anticipate these primary care specialties such as FP successfully attaining fellowships?

The family docs, untrained in virtually anything remotely resembling interventional pain medicine, will certainly try to get into these potentially career lucrative pain fellowships. The average pain doc makes over $300K while the average PCP makes $140. It is a no brainer.... If the fellowships open their doors to them, they will certainly come.

algosdoc said:

The family docs, untrained in virtually anything remotely resembling interventional pain medicine, will certainly try to get into these potentially career lucrative pain fellowships. The average pain doc makes over $300K while the average PCP makes $140. It is a no brainer.... If the fellowships open their doors to them, they will certainly come.

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My understanding is that they have been able to obtain sub-specialty certification through ABPM&R for several years. My gut reaction is that there needs to be some limits so that anesthesiologists certify anesthesiaologists, physiatrists certify physiatrists, etc. Clearly I, as a physiatrist, ought not to be qualified to obtain fellowships in retinal surgery, nephrology, or other fields unrelated to my residency, and I am not certain why FP's are anymore qualified to obtain pain fellowships. Perhaps the ABPM&R view this as a means to generate revenue? Seems short-sighted to me, but then again, this is the ABPM&R we are talking about, so why should I be surprised?

paz5559 said:

Clearly I, as a physiatrist, ought not to be qualified to obtain fellowships in retinal surgery, nephrology, or other fields unrelated to my residency, and I am not certain why FP's are anymore qualified to obtain pain fellowships. Perhaps the ABPM&R view this as a means to generate revenue? Seems short-sighted to me, but then again, this is the ABPM&R we are talking about, so why should I be surprised?

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It's PC BS in my opinion.

Maybe the collective pain RRCs are trying to throw a bone to practicioners in other fields (and potential referring sources) who do pain mangement to varying degrees.

i know an internist that did a pain fellowship a couple of years ago... the 1st year in priv practice-- he did a cerv ESI and the patient died.

now he is back to being soley internal medicine-that procedure nearly destroyed his young career because of some biases and nonconformity and non-unity in the field of pain medicine.