Hi there,
I'll be starting residency at the UCLA program this July and can tell you I have heard nothing about the PM&R pain fellowship losing accreditation.
I DO know where the rumors must have started though. Apparently, awhile back some governing board (the ABPM I beleive) decided that a single institution cannot have 2 seperate fellowships in the same field (i.e. one University cannot have both Anesthesia-based and PM&R-based Pain fellowships). With this new rule, several fellowships are at the risk of (or already have lost) ACGME accreditation of their pain fellowships. This topic has been discussed at length in other threads so I won't go on and on.
As far as the UCLA PM&R pain management fellowship is concerned, although I can't say for certain, I don't think it is under any threat. The reason I feel quite confident about this is that the fellowship is housed at the VA Greater Los Angeles as opposed to UCLA itself (thus technically not housed with the UCLA Anesthesia based pain fellowship). I don't know how many other pain fellowships have this advantage, but this fact might keep the UCLA/VA GLA program as one of the few surviving PM&R based pain fellowships in the country when all is said and done.
I hope this helps. It's a very complex matter, and I can't say I have all the answers. I'd like to hear from others on this matter. Does anyone really know how many ACGME accredited PM&R based Pain Fellowships are actually still around? Anyone know any specific details about programs that have actually lost accreditation?
