PMR Pain vs Rads

[aan298]

Hey Guys, I am interested in Rads but I also have personal experiences with pain and I understand how important that aspect of medicine can be. I'd like to know what you think the pros and cons of each are and which ultimately has a better future. I'd love to hear your thoughts on why you would choose one over the other because I keep going back and forth in my mind and I cannot seem to make up my mind. I would be happy doing either, but I do understand that the pain fellowship is not easy to get. Just for Reference I have a 250+ on step and I am an M3

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[gainey77]

Figure out which bread and butter sounds more tolerable. Reading chest XRs / Body CT for Rads vs. managing an inpatient service for Rehab.

You seem smart and will find your way to the interesting and lucrative sub-specialty in either field. You won’t have to do bread and butter forever, but enjoying the specialty basics will make the route more pleasurable (and enhance your performance).

 

[sdnuser001]

I had to make the same decision and went with PMR-pain. Then again, my board scores were way less competitive and I am applying for fellowship now, so who knows if I'll actually match. Either way though, I think you should ultimately ask if you want to be a clinician or not as that will make your decision easier. My thought is that as a pain specialist you will not only be a master of spinal imaging and image-guided procedures, but also a strong clinician with good exam skills (esp with PMR background). Not to mention that rads is a much tougher residency, the overall training length is an extra year, and lifestyle for rads is generally more call-heavy as an attending vs PMR or pain.

 

[nerve zapper]

I had to make the same decision and went with PMR-pain. Then again, my board scores were way less competitive and I am applying for fellowship now, so who knows if I'll actually match. Either way though, I think you should ultimately ask if you want to be a clinician or not as that will make your decision easier. My thought is that as a pain specialist you will not only be a master of spinal imaging and image-guided procedures, but also a strong clinician with good exam skills (esp with PMR background). Not to mention that rads is a much tougher residency, the overall training length is an extra year, and lifestyle for rads is generally more call-heavy as an attending vs PMR or pain.

How was your experience going through PM&R residency knowing at the outset that you want to do pain? Any regrets? Any advice for a med student in a similar boat?


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[sdnuser001]

How was your experience going through PM&R residency knowing at the outset that you want to do pain? Any regrets? Any advice for a med student in a similar boat?


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I think this might vary from person to person and program to program. I will honestly say that I am not particularly passionate about the neuro side of PM&R but very much enjoy the msk aspects. I am also someone that has trouble thriving in something that doesn't particularly excite me. While I've had ups and downs I've overall felt like I've done well even though I do feel sometimes like I'm wasting my time on rotations like inpatient and peds. At least with my program though the schedule has been so lax that it's hard not to try to impress your attendings while you're there cuz hey at least it makes your day better. You have strong scores I virtually guarantee you will match a top tier PMR residency and ACGME pain fellowship.

 

[Baron Samedi]

How was your experience going through PM&R residency knowing at the outset that you want to do pain? Any regrets? Any advice for a med student in a similar boat?


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My situation was a little different. I knew I wanted to do Pain Management so PM&R was the route I took to get there. PM&R residency, despite what others may tell you, is among the easiest residencies out there. Yes, there's some difficult aspects to it and, yes, you have to learn a lot -- but when you compare a PM&R resident's lifestyle to those in other fields there is no comparison.

PM&R also gave me skills relevant for pain practice. I felt more comfortable with my anesthesia colleagues in performing physical examinations and doing peripheral injections. Though, historically, Anesthesia is a more common route for Pain Management -- many of my colleagues expressed that they, retrospectively, felt that they should have done a PM&R residency instead for both the easier residency experience and more transferrable skills.

I can't comment at all on what a Radiology residency is like. I do know that several pain fellowships are now accepting Radiologists into their programs.