Pain Management

The Department of Anesthesiology offers an ACGME accredited Pain Management Fellowship position starting in July of each year. Three annual fellowship positions are available and are open to national competition. 

Our Pain Medicine Fellowship focuses on the multidisciplinary approach with close ties to Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Neurosurgery, Neurology, Psychiatry, and Palliative Care at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Our patient population commonly presents with a variety of disease processes including intervertebral disc disease, spinal stenosis, failed back surgery syndrome, complex regional pain syndrome, post-herpetic neuralgia, and other types of neuropathic pain. The primary outpatient service is located at the Jefferson Pain Management Center at the Navy Yard. In the last academic year, our outpatient volume was 6000 patient visits and approximately 200 nerve blocks per month. The pain service specializes in interventional pain management techniques under fluoroscopic and ultrasound guidance, including the following:

• Our fellows are closely integrated into our initial comprehensive patient evaluation as well as follow up visits. The fellow receives exposure and experiences in the decision-making process, performance and peri-procedure management
• Ensure that the fellow becomes an expert in comprehensive pain management that encourages critical thinking and prepared for independent practice of pain medicine.
• Attain procedural skills necessary for comprehensive pain management including fluoroscopic guided injections, ultrasound guided injections and advanced procedural skills for neuromodulation trials and implants.
• Cultivate leadership and teaching skills in pain management, as well as developing communication and coordination skills with multidisciplinary teams.
• Instill adeptness in the art of compassionate care.

Fellows complete 12 months rotations based on ACGME requirements across pain medicine. Each fellow spends 9 months at the primary clinical site, Jefferson Pain Center at Navy Yard, and 3 months in offsite rotation as part of multidisciplinary teaching concept in physical medicine and rehabilitation, acute pain, anesthesiology, neurology, headache, psychiatry, and palliative care.

The Didactic program includes weekly lectures focusing on chronic pain, cancer pain, and interventional pain management, Journal Club, Morbidity and Mortality Conference, Anesthesiology Grand Rounds.

Pain medicine fellows are expected to actively participate in academic projects. The projects will be mentored by an attending faculty with experience in scholarly projects.