Hooray, We can now apply for Pain Fellowships!!

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jmsMD

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I just read on the Pain Medicine forum that as of 2007 FP trained residents can apply for Pain fellowships.

Is this true?

Being as competitive as it is for anesthesia and PM&R residents do you guys think any FP's are going to match anywhere.

Its going to be interesting to see the numbers after the fellowship match.

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Just cause you can, doesn't mean that you will find someone to train you... Lotsa bias against FM going to Pain.

In theory, you can also become an intensive care unit specialist.

(Oh dear God, I can imagine the weekend calls for someone who is addicted to their usual pain medicine and ran out at 5 am on saturday night!)
 
I think if it was done right that a pain practice could be very fulfilling. But you would have to have very stringent rules, and be unwavering in enforcing them. I know a guy who does a pain clinic and requires annual background checks/police reports, does random pill counts at least twice yearly on every patient, and drug tests very frequently. I think if you did it like he does, it could be a very fulfilling and rewarding specialty. I mean, in my opinion, he alleviates as much suffering as any other doctor I have seen. People with pain problems do exist, it's not all druggies.
 
I think if it was done right that a pain practice could be very fulfilling...I know a guy who does a pain clinic and requires annual background checks/police reports, does random pill counts at least twice yearly on every patient, and drug tests very frequently.

Gee, sounds like fun. Sign me up! :laugh:
 
I think if it was done right that a pain practice could be very fulfilling. But you would have to have very stringent rules, and be unwavering in enforcing them. I know a guy who does a pain clinic and requires annual background checks/police reports, does random pill counts at least twice yearly on every patient, and drug tests very frequently. I think if you did it like he does, it could be a very fulfilling and rewarding specialty. I mean, in my opinion, he alleviates as much suffering as any other doctor I have seen. People with pain problems do exist, it's not all druggies.

I'm in NYC. I think if you ran pain practice like that you won't have any patients at all :smuggrin: . Though you could do some occupational health stuff physicals, U-TOX screen etc, and have potential employers to pick up the tab for all those "goodies".
 
To be quite honest with you, I had no idea that pain was that type of speciality. During med school I certainly had my fair share of "seekers" but I was unaware that most of what you do as a pain doc, is policing, and filtering out the pain patients from the "real" pain patients.

I thought it was more, procedure based like, spinal injections, epidural catheters, neurotomies, etc..

You're right, sounds like you end up being more of a parole officer than a practitioner.

Next!
 
This guy has one very busy practice and has several mid levels working with him. His ancillary staff deals with verifying the background checks, doing the call-ins for pill counts (random computer generated patient numbers that the nurses then call in and they have to be there within 24 hours for their pill count or they get kicked out of the program), and doing the random piss tests. Maybe a lot of people don't find it rewarding to relieve pain and suffering thereby allowing good hard-working people to return to their normal life, but some people do. And, judging from this guy's cars and house, he makes a pretty nice living doing it, too.

And he does some interventional type stuff as well but probably not the majority of what he does.
 
Looks to me like the problem will be becoming board certified in pain. I think you would need the permission of the Family Medicine board, and then get either the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation or the American Board of Neurology to sponsor or allow you to take their pain subspecialty board exam.

And, Board certification is vital , as you may not be able to get hospital privileges, insurance, or reimbursement for pain work without it. You could do a fellowship and never get board certified in the field.

I have tried finding more info on this - does anyone have any web links? The ABMS and ABFM sites don't appear to mention it.
 
Man... this thread is such a pain. :laugh:
 
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