Pain Oversaturation

[Dryacku]

Is the market oversatrured or is it going towards that... are there too many fields already doing pain management and will ortho and neurosurgeons just start doing pain procedures or will anesthesia be able to secure the market and there will still be a good number of jobs avaliable in the future?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Aether2000]

Pain medicine is a field unto itself. Anesthesiology lost their control over pain medicine years ago, although most physicians practicing pain medicine are anesthesiologists. We are in a field that has increasing competition by surgeons trying to do more blocks for $$$$$, but they may ultimately give it up.

 

[drusso]

If all you're doing is procedures, then yes the competition will be stiff. If, however, your practice is doing comprehensive pain management (including procedures) referring physicians will choose you over competitors.

 

[PainDr]

I'm not convinced it will become a problem. Many hospitals and ASCs are starting to implement credentialing guidlines which require fellowship training or documented evidence of proficency in specific procedures.

 

[Dryacku]

sorry to im a bit confused... the pain doc i did a rotation with did only procedures... what is comprhensive pain mangement??? what else does it involve???

If all you're doing is procedures, then yes the competition will be stiff. If, however, your practice is doing comprehensive pain management (including procedures) referring physicians will choose you over competitors.

 

[Aether2000]

Comprehensive pain management is using a multitude of tools to affect pain including psychology, functional restoration, medication management, injection therapy, neuromodulation, and surgical interventions. These may be used in different combinations with each patient.
Those that limit their practice to either prescribing medications or to performing injections are not practicing comprehensive pain management.

 

[Kwijibo]

I think the job offers out there are not as good as people think. Don't get me wrong, there is still good money to be made, but jobs coming out of fellowship are not as good as you may want. As usual, it's best to know people in the field that can help you get the better jobs.

 

[BusDoc]

sorry to im a bit confused... the pain doc i did a rotation with did only procedures... what is comprhensive pain mangement??? what else does it involve???

Oversaturation is a bit misguided. There are changes going into effect right now where the training for pain will be multidisciplinary in order to be accreditted. Saying that, Anesthesiology, PM&R, neurology, and psychiatry will have to be involved in the management of pain within pain clinics at academic institutes in order for the fellowship to be accreditted. This means that the governing bodies are seeing the greedy hands reaching in the bag and are making the process more organized and far more effective. The number of pain fellowships will undoubtedly decline as some of these hospitals "block shops" will shut down. An d to get reimbursed by insurance you will have to be fellowship accreditted, so there goes the 7-11 pain clinics opening up everywhere. Keep in mind if you are interested in Anesthesiology, they continue to run nearly 80% of hte fellowships and I believe offers the most beneficial way to train to manage pain, ie procedures, but this is not to discredit the other docs, cuz they bring in a lot of knowledge and skills that can make pain management much easier and rewarding both financially for the doctors and in offering relief for the paitents. these new guidelines are to curtail the way of ICU in the past where there were like three fellowship paths, such as surgery, medicine, anesthesia. In the future prob in the next 10 years tehre will probably be a residency simply for pain, with training in the respective fields mentioned above, not sure how good of an idea that is to be jack of all trades master of none, but we'll see.