Message from the Director
The UVM Center for Pain Medicine currently offers two fellowship positions each year, fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). These positions have a 12-month duration and are offered at the PGY-5 level.
The fellowship provides experience in the outpatient clinic and the inpatient chronic pain and acute pain consult service. Trainees participate in the evaluation and treatment of patients with a wide variety of painful conditions including:
- Neuropathic pain
- Cancer pain
- Spine-related pain
- Visceral pain
- Sympathetically-mediated pain
- Myofascial pain
Fellows will implement treatment plans and follow their patients under the direct supervision of the Center for Pain Medicine faculty. Fellows will gain expertise in fluoroscopically-guided interventional pain techniques including:
- Interlaminar and transforaminal epidural steroid injections
- Facet joint injections
- Medial branch blocks
- Radiofrequency neurolysis
- Sympathetic blocks
- Diagnostic discography
- Trial and implantation of implantable devices including but not limited to spinal cord and peripheral nerve stimulators.
In addition, our fellows have the benefit of a well-rounded integrative experience with several rotations that support a multidisciplinary education and experience for treating chronic pain patients. These include work under the direct supervision from specialty faculty in palliative care, neurology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, neuro-radiology, orthopedics and neurosurgery, integrative therapies and addiction medicine.
Our educational program in the Center for Pain Medicine includes curriculum designed to cover the ABA content outline, scheduled time to utilize on-line resources for lectures and board questions, faculty and guest lecture schedules by local and visiting faculty regarding the many specialty pain populations for comprehensive pain management, journal club sessions, implantable device conferences, ultra sound and suture workshops, quality improvement conferences, and fellow run staff and medical student educational sessions.
Fellows also have great opportunities to expand their scholarly portfolio with participation in other didactic activities within the Department of Anesthesiology such as weekly Grand Rounds, department run Regional meetings, and local Teaching Academy committees within the UVMMC Institution.
Our fellowship program provides opportunities to participate in clinical research. Fellows are encouraged to design and complete a research project under the mentorship of our faculty or they may become involved in ongoing clinical research.
Our fellows have the opportunity to participate in the educational process of residents from different specialties as well as students from medical and nursing schools. This is accomplished both through formal didactic sessions and one-on-one teaching.
