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The Pain Medicine Fellowship training program seeks to provide an appropriate atmosphere and opportunity for fellows to become consultants and practitioners in Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine.
The program focuses on comprehensive, interdisciplinary and collaborative training, where training encompasses a balance between clinical and educational needs. The emphasis of our multidisciplinary approach is to promote unity across departments and thus encompass competency in the medical, interventional, physical and behavioral aspects of pain medicine to create top leaders and practitioners in the field.
The U-M Medical School Pain Medicine Fellowship offers up to eight ACGME-accredited positions each year. This year of training incorporates the combined resources of the Department of Anesthesiology Back and Pain Center and the Veterans Administration Medical Center Pain Program. Each fellow also receives subspecialty educational opportunities in headache, palliative care and physical therapy; psychology, addiction medicine and radiology; dental, alternative medicine and EMG, as each relates to the field of Pain Medicine, by clinicians belonging to each respective specialty.
This year-long training involves all aspects of diagnostic and interventional pain management techniques across a spectrum of acute, chronic, cancer and palliative pain medicine. Education is enhanced with weekly lectures, hands-on cadaver sessions, journal clubs and In-Training Exams designed by the program. Each fellow will be involved in a clinical research or academic project to present at a national scientific meeting.
We only accept applicants who have successfully graduated from a Medical School that is recognized by the Medical Board of California. If you have attended a foreign Medical School, please review the list to ensure that your school is recognized.
We begin accepting applications for the following year's fellowship program beginning December 1 through the Electronic Resident Application System (ERAS). The deadline for application is May 31.
We review applications on a rolling basis during the open application period in ERAS. We plan to hold 1-2 interview dates a month starting in late April and ending in August; all interviews will be conducted virtually.
Resident applicants must have completed the ACGME-accredited residency program in Anesthesiology, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. ACGME training in other specialties will be considered by request.
If you have any questions, please contact Jaclyn Valentine.
The University of Michigan offers highly competitive salaries and generous benefits to our fellows and advanced trainees. Trainee salary will be commensurate with that of a House Officer at an equivalent level of training based on the HOA contract.
Current Pain Fellows are receiving comprehensive, interdisciplinary and collaborative training to become consultants and practitioners in Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine.
Our 12-month Pain Medicine Fellowship training program is designed to meet and exceed the current Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-required curriculum. Each fellow will:
- Attend weekly educational conferences
- Participate in clinical care of patients with both progressive autonomy and clinical continuity demonstrated throughout the year
- Meet competency-based goals and objectives under the supervision of specialists trained in each respective rotation:
- Anesthesia: IV placement, sedation, airway and ACLS
- Psychiatry: Mental examination and psychological therapies
- Physical Medicine: Electrodiagnostic studies and musculoskeletal pain disorders and therapies
- Neurology: Neurologic examination, neuro-imaging, and head pain disorders
- Provide in-patient clinical care for Acute, Chronic, Cancer and Palliative Pain
- Receive interventional training including, but not limited to: Spinal injection of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine; Injection of major joints; Sympathetic Blocks; Intradiscal procedures; Spinal Cord Stimulation; Intrathecal Drug Delivery
Pain Medicine Fellows are given one to three morning lectures each week, hosted by faculty and/or other fellows. Fellows are expected to participate through giving lectures at the resident and intern level of training. Finally, fellows will participate in quarterly journal club meetings.
The primary objective of the Pain Medicine Fellowship is to provide evidence based clinical training and medical education in the development of physicians who will provide outstanding comprehensive pain management. Graduating fellows will be experienced in caring for patients with a broad and diverse catalog of pain syndromes and be capable of managing those pain symptoms in the context of complicated comorbidities using a multidisciplinary approach.
Fellows will spend the majority of their time at the Burlington Back and Pain Center (BRL) and will work closely with Dual board certified Anesthesia and Pain Medicine faculty. Fellows will be exposed to a variety of complex pain conditions/states and will be educated on diagnosis, assessment and treatment of chronic pain related to the spine, complex regional pain syndrome, peripheral neuropathic pain and cancer pain. Treatments are geared toward a multi-disciplinary approach with management through procedural intervention, pharmacotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Fellows will become proficient in performing facet blocks, radiofrequency ablation, sympathetic nerve blocks, neurolytic techniques, epidural steroid injections, peripheral nerve blocks, trigger point injections and spinal cord stimulation. Fellows will also be encouraged to assume leadership roles while working with residents and medical students and will be given increasing autonomy throughout the course of their training.
- Site Director: Ronald Wasserman, MD
- Fellowship Director: Goodarz Golmirzaie, MD
The training experience at the Ann Arbor Veterans Administration Healthcare System provides exposure and interaction with a unique and rewarding patient population. Assigned to the Pain Medicine Department, you will engage in managing a wide variety of disease processes and pathologies. The Pain Medicine Department is a multidisciplinary team that includes board-certified interventional pain physicians, pain pharmacists, physical therapists, chiropractors, and pain psychologists. Fellows will also work with other departments to learn about pain across multiple specialties, including palliative care, physical medicine and rehabilitation, interventional radiology, neuroradiology and neurosurgery. During your rotation, you will be trained in various fluoroscopic and ultrasound guided procedures. The VA performs advanced procedures like spinal cord stimulation, kyphoplasty, and peripheral nerve stimulation with continued development of current interventional practices. The team also provides perioperative acute pain services for veterans undergoing surgery at the VA. These services include various ultrasound guided nerve blocks and pain catheters before and after surgery. For fellows, it’s an exciting time to be part of a growing department at the VA!
- Director: Tyler Craig, MD
The primary objective or outcome of the headache / neurology experience is that the fellow should be familiar with key components of the neurological exam and associated pain and headache syndromes. Fellows should be able to manage such problems, even when complicated by the presence of other symptoms, complex medical illness and psychological distress. It is anticipated that the fellow will receive didactics in migraine, cervicogenic headache, cluster headache and other head pain topics. Additionally, the fellow will have access to key articles in headache and neurology.
- Director: Wade Cooper, DO
Fellows will rotate over the course of the year on our inpatient acute pain service (APS). They will have the opportunity to play an integral role in leading this hospital based service which is comprised of anesthesia pain faculty, residents, medical students, nurses and pharmacists. Fellows will see inpatient consults on a variety of complex pain patients including postsurgical patients, cancer pain patients and palliative patients. Fellows will have the opportunity to learn management of epidurals, peripheral nerve catheters, patient controlled analgesia, and ketamine infusions. The primary objective for the fellow will be to become an excellent consultant who will be able to provide recommendations to primary services in regards to managing acute pain not controlled with conventional modalities.
- Site Director: Ace Josifoski, MD
Each Pain Medicine fellow will participate in at least one academic project during the course of their training. The University of Michigan Medical School Pain Fellowship strongly encourages and enthusiastically supports trainees to present an academic project at a national conference. These conferences may include the American Association of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Annual Conference, The American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, The American Academy of Pain Medicine, The American Pain Society, and The American Society of Anesthesiologists Annual Conference.
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Program Associate
Program Assistant
Anesthesiology
