UCSF pain fellowship info

[A Whole]

Currently I'm a CA-2 at a large program in the Midwest, and I'm planning on a career in interventional pain. Ultimately, my wife and I would like to settle in the Bay area for a variety of reasons. Consequently I'd like to learn more about the pain fellowship at UCSF, but the faculty at my program know very little about it. The UCSF website has very little information about the nuts and bolts of the program.

Does anyone have any info on this program (strengths, weaknesses, structure of the program, reputation, etc.)?

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[melancholy]

Take my observations with a grain of salt as I just had some peripheral exposure from months ago and things may be different.

My impression was there seemed to be some reorganization taking place, but I couldn't tell as to how long it had been going on for. This extended not only to faculty, but also in regards to coverage at various facilities. The interm pain clinic director is a graduate of the program and seemed energetic and positive about the changes to come. Some of clinical faculty appear to be on the younger side. (at a cursory glance) Seems to be more focus on their basic science research and I can't recall seeing as much clinical research literature coming out of there in recent years from the newer faculty. Mark Schumacher (known for TRPV1 research) may be taking a bigger leadership role within the department as a whole. The program seems relatively interventional in nature. (based on discussion as well as seeing some of their referral notes in the past). The rotation at the VA is 2-3 months long I think and helps to cover much of the multidiscplinary ACGME requirements. Last accreditation cycle was for 4 years (max is 5) and the ACGME site states scheduled site visit was for April 2011. Fellows I've seen at various SCS conferences sounded happy being there. My very subjective gut feeling is that if multidisciplinary exposure is a main priority in your fellowship search, there may be other programs that are stronger in this area at this time. (but obviously this could be subject to change) Sorry, I wish I had more information about the fellowship itself, but hopefully others may have more useful advice.

 

[Mmh9]

I just recently finished interviewing for my pain fellowship and had an offer from UCSF but couldnt accept bc of family.... It's a decent program. I agree with above, it is a program in flux right now, they're changing their location from it's present site and per the PD there is quite a bit of money coming into the pain dept in terms of research dollars and upkeep. In terms of procedures, it seemed like the fellows hit the common average of close to 500 bread and butter procedures, maybe 8 SCS, don't recall pump number but it was low, and they send you to a course for kyphos/vertebro since it's IR dominant at UCSF (as is with most programs). I guess it really depends on what you're looking for. Pros: location, ppl there are really nice/Thoha Pham (PD) is cool/easy to talk to, and I think the call schedule wasn't too bad (4 fellows n residents split call), research can be done if you want it. Cons: expensive city, not as interventional as I had hoped (but still decent).

Reputation? They used to have bigger names there several years ago, most of which who had left. On the west coast the more reputable programs are UW, UCSD, UC Davis, UCLA (ferrante's not the PMR one), and Stanford(which is hardly interventional from what I've heard).