Pain Medicine Fellowship

The UCI Pain Medicine Fellowship provides a rigorous training program with firm foundations in evidence-based scientific principles, exceptional bedside clinical skills, proficiency in procedural techniques and promotion of scientific research. Fellows will gain insight and experience through the highly innovative and structured curriculum that will prepare for board certification and future practice. With strong mentorship and support, fellows are strongly encouraged to participate in special task forces and committees within the pain society to further develop their education and leadership skills.

Focusing on multi-specialty training, fellows will have the opportunity to rotate through a variety of subspecialty rotations available in anesthesiology, neurology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, medicine, neuroradiology, palliative care and psychiatry.

The training program will also focus on the business of medicine with the knowledge on how to navigate the changing world of healthcare delivery. A dedicated curriculum will focus on the development of administrative and financial skill sets, inclusive of billing, coding, practice management and leading hospital-wide initiatives.

Fellows will have the opportunity to conduct hands-on workshops on ultrasound-guided regional blocks, interventional pain procedures, simulation and surgical skills such as suture placement and hemostasis. We invite guest and rotation faculty to provide interactive teaching sessions on physical medicine and rehab, psychiatry, addiction medicine, palliative medicine, neurosurgery, radiology, wellness, integrative medicine, and acupuncture.

During training, fellows will take a few weekends of a at home pager call that is kept within the ACGME limits. When on call, the fellow will round on the weekend for inpatient chronic pain consultation services. Another opportunity for the fellows to enhance their education and training is by internal moonlighting for anesthesiology, which should not interfere or compromise with the required learning.

At the end of the fellowship, fellows will have experienced and learned the following:

• Performance of a full complement of neuraxial and sympathetic injections
• Radiofrequency ablation
• Joint injections
• Trialing, implantation and management of dorsal column and peripheral nerve stimulators
• Intrathecal pump trial, implantation, refill technique and management
• Billing and coding on procedures and clinic visits
• Ultrasound guided regional anesthesia techniques
• Thoracic epidurals for thoracic trauma
• Botulinum toxin therapy for the treatment of pain and spasticity
• Develop personalized physical and occupational therapy programs
• Prescribe appropriate prosthetics and orthotics
• Prescribe pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic therapies
• Prescribe opioid and non-opioid analgesics
• Refer and follow patients undergoing pain psychology interventions
• Integrative medicine

Pain medicine fellows will participate in bi-weekly didactics that consist of:

• Small group board-oriented lectures
• Physical examination practice sessions
• Journal Club
• Grand rounds
• Multidisciplinary case conferences
• M&M discussions

Formal educational sessions led by core multidisciplinary faculty are constructed to provide an overview of all ACGME-required topics, pain medicine board preparation, pain practice business preparation, billing and coding, epidemiology, research preparation and research study design.

Fellows are strongly encouraged to participate in scholarly activities with mentorship of subspecialty faculty. There is ample opportunity and support for fellows to attend regional and national conferences and are encouraged to submit abstracts and present cases.

Pain medicine fellows will be provided enriching environments at UCI Health Center for Pain & Wellness and the UCI Medical Center that are challenging and fulfilling throughout training.

Chronic Pain Service
Fellowship training will include experiences at clinical sites with a diverse patient population. Interventional pain procedures are performed at the UCI Health Center for Pain & Wellness which is fully equipped with fluoroscopy suites, state-of-the-art ultrasound machine, suite of recovery bays, examination rooms and a musculoskeletal ultrasound machine. Fellows will work a team of the clinic staff that includes medical assistants, nurses and fluoroscopy technicians that provides extensive support with patient flow.

Acute Pain Service
Fellows will gain experience with high volume cases and a large variety of ultrasound-guided nerve blocks in the 24-hour Acute Pain Service at UCI Medical Center. Fellows will care for patients with acute postoperative, post-traumatic and severe chronic pain. Operating room procedures can include trials of spinal cord stimulation, implantation of dorsal column and peripheral nerve stimulators and trial and implantation of intrathecal drug delivery systems.

Perioperative Pain Clinic
Dedicated to providing patients with an effective pain management plan, fellows will be involved with the Perioperative Pain Clinic. Fellows will develop and tailor a comprehensive treatment plan for patients on preoperative preparation, intraoperative care optimization and postoperative planning. Fellows will work with a multidisciplinary group of primary care doctors, nurses, pharmacists, therapists and surgeons to identify and develop treatment strategies for operations and factors that parallel escalated pain risk.

The UCI Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care research division offers a wide range of basic science and clinical research including cannabis research, pediatric pain and pediatric pain clinical trial opportunities. Fellows will have access to opportunities within the UCI Pain Division and within the university, which is nationally known for its research in stem cell biology and spinal cord injury. Fellows will have access to collaborate with other investigators within the university, such as the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute and the UCI Center for the Study of Cannabis. The UCI stimulating research environment includes studies that are funded by national grants from prominent pain societies.