Neurology to Pain Medicine

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
bk03

bk03

Full Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2023
Messages
75
Reaction score
77
How difficult would it be to match into a high quality pain program if I did neurology over pmr/anesthesia. Would I have any issues as an attending if I was neurology trained in terms of skills? How feasible/good of an idea is it do 50/50 neuro-pain? My interest in neuro lies in the intellectuality of the diagnosis and in pain, the cool procedures. Interventional Neuro would be the dream but I don't think I can handle the lifestyle. Thanks!
Members don't see this ad.
 
Bhargava Kolli said:
How difficult would it be to match into a high quality pain program if I did neurology over pmr/anesthesia. Would I have any issues as an attending if I was neurology trained in terms of skills? How feasible/good of an idea is it do 50/50 neuro-pain? My interest in neuro lies in the intellectuality of the diagnosis and in pain, the cool procedures. Interventional Neuro would be the dream but I don't think I can handle the lifestyle. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Are you a med student? If so, it’s very difficult to project that far ahead. Currently, you would easily match. But in 4 years? Nobody knows. You would have been very unlikely to match 4 years ago. If anesthesia market stays scorching hot (which I do think it will), you’ll be fine. But 4 years is a very long time, plenty of time for a specialty to go from hot to a dumpster fire (look at EM).
 
Members don't see this ad :)
mdo1738 said:
Are you a med student? If so, it’s very difficult to project that far ahead. Currently, you would easily match. But in 4 years? Nobody knows. You would have been very unlikely to match 4 years ago. If anesthesia market stays scorching hot (which I do think it will), you’ll be fine. But 4 years is a very long time, plenty of time for a specialty to go from hot to a dumpster fire (look at EM).
Click to expand...
Yup, I am a medical student. Thanks for the advice! What is your opinion on the other questions that I had?
 
Bhargava Kolli said:
Yup, I am a medical student. Thanks for the advice! What is your opinion on the other questions that I had?
Click to expand...

You’ll be fine on procedures. You will definitely enter fellowship far behind any anesthesia-trained co-fellows on epidural technique (even though OB epidurals and pain ESIs are very different, there’s something to be said for a few hundred labor epidurals honing your technique with a Tuohy and LOR), but you’ll catch up, and anesthesia doesn’t have any advantage on the other procedures that you couldn’t get in another specialty if you do pain electives.

I can’t speak for the 50-50 neuro-pain, I imagine it’s possible but idk. Probably would put a big hit on your earning potential.
 
Bhargava Kolli said:
How difficult would it be to match into a high quality pain program if I did neurology over pmr/anesthesia. Would I have any issues as an attending if I was neurology trained in terms of skills? How feasible/good of an idea is it do 50/50 neuro-pain? My interest in neuro lies in the intellectuality of the diagnosis and in pain, the cool procedures. Interventional Neuro would be the dream but I don't think I can handle the lifestyle. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Agree with above. Many programs would be quite open to this, while some may be less apt to take a non-anesthesia or non-PM&R applicant. 50/50 neuro/pain is possible, but uncommon. Neuro much more involved in the "intellectuality of the diagnosis" than the way most practice Pain, but there is plenty of diagnosing in Pain. Obviously, Pain has more procedures than general Neuro, but there are some neat advancements in the interventional Neuro side of things in the past decade or so.

Most Anesthesia residents have better hands than neuro/psych in fellowship, but if we're being honest, most fellows have poor procedural skills to start. This is certainly not something you need to worry about now.

Do a rotation in both, shadow if rotation not available.
 
one of the better pain docs i know is neurology trained.

if interested in neuro, do neuro.

during residency, do as much pain rotation as you can to get interventional experience.
 
I can train most to use a needle.

It’s harder to teach someone to be a good diagnostician and I’m not that good of a teacher.

Take what you will from that.
 
Snowmen96 said:
I've said it in another thread, but I can't see why someone who wishes to do pain medicine would choose anything other than PM&R.
Click to expand...

It makes more sense to do whatever you enjoy, to which you could return if you there is a change of heart and/or pay in the future.

A number of anesthesiologists switched back to anesthesia the last couple years because anesthesia pays so well right now.
 
Thank you for the advice everyone. If anyone has any other advice in general about pain as well, I would love to hear it. Hard to get info on the field from school.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
A couple thoughts:
-if you don’t do PM&R or anesthesia, it may limit the positions you can apply for in the future.
-there’s a big overlap between pain and neurology with neuralgias, headaches, etc.
-realistically, pain medicine is all about procedures unless you’re in an academic position. You might even try to go to some procedure courses in residency to get a feel for it, they’re much cheaper when you’re a trainee.
 
I am a Neurologist who trained in an ACGME-accredited anesthesia-based pain fellowship in 2007. There is a small procedural learning curve at the beginning of the fellowship, but it is easily overcome if you have a program with decent patient volume.
My current practice is about 50-50 general neuro and pain. On the pain side of my practice, I implant pumps and SCS, perform kypho, injections and RFA. I don't do regen med or ultrasound work. This is only possible for me because Im in solo private practice.
 
I trained at Penn state Hershey a decade ago. PD at the time and 1 of the other core attendings were agcme pain fellowship trained neurologists.
 
Mayo Rochester and Mayo Jax both have Neuro/Pain docs on staff as well
 
UVA did when I was there, or wait never mind, she was a psychiatrist!
 
CB1Antagonist said:
I am a Neurologist who trained in an ACGME-accredited anesthesia-based pain fellowship in 2007. There is a small procedural learning curve at the beginning of the fellowship, but it is easily overcome if you have a program with decent patient volume.
My current practice is about 50-50 general neuro and pain. On the pain side of my practice, I implant pumps and SCS, perform kypho, injections and RFA. I don't do regen med or ultrasound work. This is only possible for me because Im in solo private practice.
Click to expand...
This sounds very cool. Is there anyway I can reach out to you to get more information?
 
Just matched into pain from neuro so did one of my co-residents. I received close to 15 interviews and I don't even think I'm that great of a candidate. If this was a few years back, I would have been very lucky to match. Can't speak to what the market will look like in 4-5 years. Right now it's good
 
Drhappyface said:
Just matched into pain from neuro so did one of my co-residents. I received close to 15 interviews and I don't even think I'm that great of a candidate. If this was a few years back, I would have been very lucky to match. Can't speak to what the market will look like in 4-5 years. Right now it's good
Click to expand...
can I dm you?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
Pain medicine fellowship - Leftover spots
Replies
1
Views
1K
Fox800
Fox800
GoSpursGo
  • Locked
Pain Medicine political threads
Replies
0
Views
506
GoSpursGo
GoSpursGo
O
Seeking an advice on entering pain medicine from occupational medicine
Replies
10
Views
1K
occpain
O
A
Pain medicine reimbursements - ABMS/ABPM certification
Replies
1
Views
832
bedrock
bedrock
drusso
Helpful Talking Points for Confronting Toxic Ideology in Pain Medicine
Replies
5
Views
1K
lobelsteve
lobelsteve
Top