How to get a pain fellowship?

[Med4ever]

How do you get a pain fellowship? Get to know the pds? Do a ton of research, or just plain apply? Also if you want to go to a particular fellowship should you attend that anesthesia program? Also any particular programs (anesthesia) out there where the pd's/chairs have great connections?

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[Epidural]

I wouldn't go to a particular residency soley because you want to get into their Pain fellowship program. Research will definitely help your application, but it certainly isn't a necessity. My limited observation has been that Anesthesia residents from MGH, BWH, BIDMC, UCSF, Stanford, Hopkins, Columbia, and UCLA have little difficulty in terms of obtaining a fellowship. Often, these residents wind up staying at their home institution (except for Columbia residents).

I think that spending your elective at the program you want to go to is extremely helpful. If this isn't possible, then spend your elective time at your home institution's program and try to get a solid letter. If you know you want to do Pain, it's worth the investment to buy 1-2 books as a resident so you can show off your skills. At the minimum, you should look at some fluoro images and learn where the needle should go for TFESIs, ILESIs, and MBBs. Also, learn how to do a good MSK exam before your rotation because that's something that most Anesthesia residents haven't had to do in a long time.

There's much more people applying to Pain these days. At least at the Harvard programs, there are lots of applications from BWH, MGH, and BIDMC.

 

[Med4ever]

Is usmle step 3 even looked at or taken into consideration past the fact that you passed it? Also, what about CCF. How is thier pain program, I was under the impression it was one of the top and highly sought after.

 

[Doctodd]

Is usmle step 3 even looked at or taken into consideration past the fact that you passed it? Also, what about CCF. How is thier pain program, I was under the impression it was one of the top and highly sought after.

ummmm....i think if you didnt pass step 3, you might not get in. Other than that i dont think step 3 has much of a bearing.

T

 

[Kwijibo]

We had 5 people go into pain this year, and two came very close to staying at our program.
Our grads went to BID, Brigham, UCLA, Cleveland Clinic, and Hopkins, which are probably the 5 best programs in the country. So the decision not to stay at Columbia wasn't necessarily because it isn't good, just that there is better out there.

 

[GassiusClay]

I saw the list of hospitals where people don't have trouble getting into pain fellowships. But what about the so called "mid-tier" programs? I was wondering what someone could do starting from the beginning of their residency to improve their odds of going to "great" places.

For example, how many pain spots exist at UCLA and how many of them are usually taken by one of their own? And what institutions do the outsiders usually come from? Finally, what makes UCLA's program very good versus somewhere else besides geographic desirability?

Also, does the location of the fellowship affect the job hunt? If you do it at place X, are jobs opportunities pretty much around X.

Thanks for your time. PM if you prefer it.