Anesthesia vs. PM&R for pain management / spine

[Spongeman7]

Hey guys! So I'm interested in pain management and was just wondering what the real differences of going into something like spine from PM&R or interventional pain from anesthesia was. I would ideally like to go into pain management through an anesthesia residency, but anesthesia seems to be getting more and more competitive, could you do something similar going through PM&R? I've also seen the compensation for pain management and anesthesia, and it seems much higher than PM&R but can't they both do similar procedures and have similar practices. In theory could a PM&R procedural doc make equivalent to an anesthesia pain doc? Thanks for the help in advance.

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[j4pac]

Hey guys! So I'm interested in pain management and was just wondering what the real differences of going into something like spine from PM&R or interventional pain from anesthesia was. I would ideally like to go into pain management through an anesthesia residency, but anesthesia seems to be getting more and more competitive, could you do something similar going through PM&R? I've also seen the compensation for pain management and anesthesia, and it seems much higher than PM&R but can't they both do similar procedures and have similar practices. In theory could a PM&R procedural doc make equivalent to an anesthesia pain doc? Thanks for the help in advance.

PM&R is also competitive. Go into what you’d prefer if you didn’t get a Pain fellowship. Basing your decision on money would be unwise (especially this far out).

 

[Spongeman7]

PM&R is also competitive. Go into what you’d prefer if you didn’t get a Pain fellowship. Basing your decision on money would be unwise (especially this far out).

Def plan on going into whichever I like more once I rotate more in them! But just out of curiosity, do you happen to know if income is similar between spine thru pm&r and interventional pain thru anesthesia?

 

[DMBandFan86]

It’s literally the same job if you are talking about a board certified pain physician whether you are PM&R or anesthesia. You can also go into pain from Neurology or psychiatry. But I agree with the above, pick what you like best as they are vastly different. Both fields are competitive to get into. With PMR you will have better MSK knowledge and EMG knowledge. With anesthesia you will be better at regional blocks and epidurals, but will still have to learn flouro techniques.

anesthesia generally makes an higher base salary than PMR. So if you decide to not do pain you will still have a great salary to fall back on. You can still achieve that high with general PMR as well (but isn’t the standard). Also, if you go into pain, Anesthesia can still moonlight for OR time as an anesthesiologist and make more money than a pain doc moonlighting at an inpatient rehab or SNF.

There is also interventional pain or sports/spine fellowships that can be fairly equal or different than ACGME pain. But that is another layer of complexity.

 

[CoomassieBlue57]

In regards to the pay difference between anesthesia trained pain vs PM&R trained pain, the only employer that will offer different rates for the same procedures is the VA. Anesthesia will get a higher rate than PM&R at the VA.