2017-18 Pain Fellowship Interview Thread

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MaximusD said:
Getting some positive vibes from programs in response to Thank You emails. Anyone else having this experience?
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Thtat's great that you've been getting feedback. I've only heard back from a couple of places after sending thank you emails and the responses were largely warm but generic. For most communication I've just had radio silence, including an email to the PD of my top choice telling them I am ranking them #1. I'm trying not to read too much into it as others have suggested, but it is difficult not to get a little discouraged. Either way, only 7 weeks until we find out!
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Anyone got thoughts about sending emails out now before programs certify their lists and send a little love?
 
jwheezy said:
Anyone got thoughts about sending emails out now before programs certify their lists and send a little love?
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Doubt it helps, but it can't hurt.

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Anyone have any thoughts (positive or negatives) on the following programs:
UCLA (PMR)
OHSU
UW
Mayo - AZ
UC Davis
 
NLink0714 said:
I plan on doing this, either here or to another forum including an overview of my application, stats etc for future applicants. Have met many people on the trail, often at the same programs! It will be curious to see if my thoughts match up with the crowd.

Looking forward to joining Green Grass, MaximusD and the other silent heroes on the certified list very soon...6 more to go.
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It's not perfect but a great resource over the past several years has been the Pain Fellowship Reviews Sticky Thread at the top of the Pain Medicine forum. I received a lot of great information from it. It was also interesting seeing the evolution of some programs over the years.

I'd encourage all past/current/future applicants to post as much as they are willing to because there's so much knowledge that one gains just by going through the process of applying. Being able to pass on some of that useful information would be invaluable for a new applicant trying to figure out what these programs are all about. Granted they are all extremely subjective reviews, the more reviews we can post about programs, there more we can learn about each program. If you've ever learned anything about the process, fellowships, applying, etc. from SDN and its members, it's a great way to give back.

Pain Fellowship Reviews


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Blitz2006 said:
Do you think if you are internal applicant you are close to a lock at your home program? It's obviously an advantage, but just wondering how much of a bonus it really is?

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It goes both ways. We interviewed several internal candidates. For the most part, the applicants were good so they were ranked highly. A few we knew had reputations of being lazy. They were not ranked highly. Almost all applicants can find 3-4 people to write good recommendations for them. Unless a LOR says something extremely polarizing, most LORs are a wash. Also, for the most part, people can act relatively normal for a few hours during interview day. (Although some are just weird and it's like pulling teeth trying to get applicants to open up. They were also ranked low). But if you're an internal candidate, we have the opportunity to see your work ethic, your ability/inability to play well with others, and your reputation longitudinally. So it can either help you tremendously or kill your chances.

Also note that most programs will interview all of their internal candidates, regardless of their caliber. Even if it's just as a courtesy. So just because a program interviews 5 internal candidates, it doesn't mean all 5 are truly interview-worthy or even have a true chance of being ranked.

All in all, they are not a "lock" simply because they are internal. But if you're a strong candidate to begin with, it works very well in your favor.


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DHracer said:
While we have some people who are in the know commenting on the forum, any advice for post-interview communication? Will it be appropriate to let our top few choices know that they are high on our list, or should that be reserved for our #1 rank?
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Your fate has pretty much been decided after we've gone through your application, interviewed you, then discussed your candidacy with the committee. No post interview "love letter," no matter how eloquent, will move you from being unranked to ranked. Or even from low rank to high rank.

But as committee members, we're still human right? A nice letter that is concise and articulate *may* have the ability to change your review slightly (strong emphasis on the *may*). For example, if we are on the fence about two candidates for the same rank position, a committee member may bring up the fact that you wrote a very nice email that illustrated how collegial, passionate, easy-going, etc. you are and maybe, just maybe, that might give you the slightest edge.

In reality, so much has already been said by your application/LORs/interview that a "love letter" isn't going to change anything drastically.

My advice if you're going to send it: be articulate and concise, do if early after your interview date, be specific about why you enjoyed the program (unless you are just sending thank you cards to be polite, then it's fine to be short and generic). And if you're serious about ranking them #1, it's fine to say it as long as it's true.


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Please help me rank these programs
UAB, University of Washington, Mayo Jacksonville, University of South Florida, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Toledo, Medical College of Georgia
 
sg2506 said:
Please help me rank these programs
UAB, University of Washington, Mayo Jacksonville, University of South Florida, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Toledo, Medical College of Georgia
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UW, mayo, Toledo, UAB, Wisconsin, MCG, Florida
 
Just finished the trail and going to certify in the next few days. Have any of you all heard about UC Irvine and their opening they had in August? I remember when I interviewed there, they said that they might have a 3rd spot opening for next year. Is this true? Perhaps this was the opening? Or did something more...sinister happen?

This was the release from the AAP Faculty Group:

Subject: FW: Advertisement for Open Pain Fellowship Position

Sent on behalf of Dani Perret -

The University of California Irvine Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care has an open fellowship position in its ACGME-accredited Pain Medicine Fellowship Program. The program is truly interdisciplinary; the fellow will become an expert at interventional pain management, opioid and adjunctive medication management, and non-interventional and non-pharmacotherapeutic pain management. Personalized physical and occupational therapy, offloading therapy, acupuncture, advanced interventional procedures, electrodiagnostics, psychological and cognitive therapies, and regional anesthesia are common treatment modalities. Fellows will be well prepared to treat patients holistically. UC Irvine is a Level I Trauma Center, stroke center, burn center, NCI-designated cancer center, and houses the only academic pain program in Orange County, California. Candidates must have successfully completed an ACGME-accredited residency in Anesthesiology or Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) and be eligible to obtain a California medical license. The fellow will work with one other Pain fellow and serve as colleague and role model for rotating residents from both the Anesthesiology and PM&R residency programs. The position is for the 2017-2018 academic year.


Application Process:

As an ACGME-accredited Pain Medicine Fellowship, the fellowship participates in the NRMP’s (National Resident Matching Program) Pain Medicine Match.

Applications for the fellowship will be accepted by the Fellowship Coordinator, Britney Prince [email protected].

For more information, please also feel free to contact the program leadership team:

Danielle Perret Karimi, MD, Program Director: xxx

Shalini Shah, MD, Associate Program Director: xxx


Or refer to the following link http://www.anesthesiology.uci.edu/education_painmed_fellowship.shtml for details.
 
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Anyone get any rank to match emails?

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Orin said:
But isn't it primarily med management/non-interventional?
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Who says? A random poster on sdn? I also fit into the random poster category, but it's hard to get aapm without a robust interventional experience, as evidenced by the previous winners of the award.
 
Blitz2006 said:
Anyone get any rank to match emails?

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Sadly nope. I got one random "please make sure to register for the match" that I heard some other people might not have gotten, although that made me worry that I might not have filled out my NRMP stuff out correctly. Also heard that I could ask for my rank from another place, but haven't done that.

drM2017 said:
What about Stanford? Any thoughts or insight?
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Honestly, it seems like a great program for developing an educational understanding of pain and appropriate management. I really liked how they used a variety of metrics to better characterize their patients and come up with an appropriate plan. Their research and didactic experience seemed really great. I feel that fellows graduating from the program are probably very well prepared for treating their patients and knowing what interventions, medications, or modalities are appropriate.

I am not someone who thinks interventional numbers are the most important aspect of a fellowship, as the challenging parts of pain medicine seem to be making sure you are doing interventions on the right people and treating patients holistically. However, I did think their volume was low. The number I heard was about 500 procedures, including small procedures like trigger points. That was from a fellow who had used some elective time to increase interventional experience. Even if they are doing complicated procedures, that number is about half as many as some other places. If they had more interventional experience, I probably would have thought it had the full package.

Anybody's thoughts comparing UT San Antonio, Mayo Arizona, UC Davis?
 
Interesting as I know several previous AAPM winners that do NOT have a robust interventional experience. One such previous winner has hardly any ITP experience. Depends what you classify as "robust" I guess.


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cheetamorf said:
Sadly nope. I got one random "please make sure to register for the match" that I heard some other people might not have gotten, although that made me worry that I might not have filled out my NRMP stuff out correctly. Also heard that I could ask for my rank from another place, but haven't done that.



Honestly, it seems like a great program for developing an educational understanding of pain and appropriate management. I really liked how they used a variety of metrics to better characterize their patients and come up with an appropriate plan. Their research and didactic experience seemed really great. I feel that fellows graduating from the program are probably very well prepared for treating their patients and knowing what interventions, medications, or modalities are appropriate.

I am not someone who thinks interventional numbers are the most important aspect of a fellowship, as the challenging parts of pain medicine seem to be making sure you are doing interventions on the right people and treating patients holistically. However, I did think their volume was low. The number I heard was about 500 procedures, including small procedures like trigger points. That was from a fellow who had used some elective time to increase interventional experience. Even if they are doing complicated procedures, that number is about half as many as some other places. If they had more interventional experience, I probably would have thought it had the full package.

Anybody's thoughts comparing UT San Antonio, Mayo Arizona, UC Davis?
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I figure if a program is making sure you register to match, that's a very good sign, no?

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Just wanted to say good luck to everyone and thanks for posting your thoughts and keeping the list updated.

I especially wanted to say thank you to all of the people on the admissions/program side of things that took the time to weigh in on the topics that are most concerning to many of us. Having your input was reassuring, to say the least.

Cheers!
 
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It's all up to the Match Gods now. Hope they bring favor to us all. Good luck everyone! Can't wait to hear where you all end up!
 
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DHracer said:
Just wanted to say good luck to everyone and thanks for posting your thoughts and keeping the list updated.

I especially wanted to say thank you to all of the people on the admissions/program side of things that took the time to weigh in on the topics that are most concerning to many of us. Having your input was reassuring, to say the least.

Cheers!
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For example? Who posted here from admissions... did I miss it?

Best of luck to all! <12 days remaining!
 
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MaximusD said:
For example? Who posted here from admissions... did I miss it?

Best of luck to all! <12 days remaining!
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As this is anonymous, I don't know for sure if anyone is who they represent themselves to be. That said, I'm referring to anyone who used the "we" pronoun when referring to a program's admissions process. If it sounded like a fellow or attending commenting, I assumed it was.
 
From University of Toledo:

"Dear Fellowship Candidate:

Recently and quite unexpectedly a major change in the nature and personnel of our pain medicine fellowship occurred. After much deliberation with the leadership of our fellowship, the core program, and the institution we came to the difficult decision that we would not accept any candidates into fellowship positions at the present time. This decision was not reached lightly, but was made out of concern for any potential fellows. It was felt that it would be unfair to accept anyone into the program until a time when the situation could be resolved and the future learning environment insured. We thank you for your interest in our program, and apologize whole-heartedly for any burden that these circumstances have placed on you. Once again, we are sorry. Hopefully, in the near future we will once again be in a position to accept applications. Good luck with the fellowship match, and we wish you well in your future endeavors."
 
buckeye2132 said:
From University of Toledo:

"Dear Fellowship Candidate:

Recently and quite unexpectedly a major change in the nature and personnel of our pain medicine fellowship occurred. After much deliberation with the leadership of our fellowship, the core program, and the institution we came to the difficult decision that we would not accept any candidates into fellowship positions at the present time. This decision was not reached lightly, but was made out of concern for any potential fellows. It was felt that it would be unfair to accept anyone into the program until a time when the situation could be resolved and the future learning environment insured. We thank you for your interest in our program, and apologize whole-heartedly for any burden that these circumstances have placed on you. Once again, we are sorry. Hopefully, in the near future we will once again be in a position to accept applications. Good luck with the fellowship match, and we wish you well in your future endeavors."
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When did this go out? I hope it wasn't after the rank lists went in. Feeling bad for the fellows there now.
 
DHracer said:
When did this go out? I hope it wasn't after the rank lists went in. Feeling bad for the fellows there now.
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This went out yesterday. Texted a past fellow to see if he had any insight to what happened, but he had not heard anything. The program is very high volume and very dependent on a single pain guy so I'm hoping that everything is okay with him and it's just an administrative thing.
 
Do we truly have to wait until Noon for match results? Any word on if they are released earlier? Thanks and good luck!
 
propforall said:
Do we truly have to wait until Noon for match results? Any word on if they are released earlier? Thanks and good luck!
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If you log in now, you can find your match result...

























in about 13 hours.
 
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so thrilled to have matched! Hope everyone is pleased. Such an exciting and wonderful day after the long wait!!

(Edited as all lists are out to my knowledge)
 
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The last match I'll ever have to go through.

Congrats everyone!
 
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Done and done! Congrats y'all! Can't wait to meet you at the conferences we will all be attending together for the next 40 years
 
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Congrats everyone on the Match. Hopefully this thread will provide some insight for next year's group of applicants. I think there is a trend to offer interviews early and have interview days before July (that way you can talk to the fellows who have been there for nearly a year, rather than a bunch of newbies). This makes applying early a premium. Keep that in mind.
 
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If anyone would be interested, I'm willing to freely discuss outcomes, competitiveness, etc. I realize this is an anonymous forum so maybe a SurveyMonkey would be helpful for people applying in the future.

Thoughts?
 
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MaximusD said:
If anyone would be interested, I'm willing to freely discuss outcomes, competitiveness, etc. I realize this is an anonymous forum so maybe a SurveyMonkey would be helpful for people applying in the future.

Thoughts?
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Let start - Where did you match?
 
Did you guys see any applicants from EM? I know it's more difficult to match from non-anesthesia/non-PM&R, but I'm just wondering how it is for EM applicants in 2017. ABEM is a co-sponsor of pain medicine with ABA since 2014, but not sure if that matters.

I'm currently an EM resident (at a semi-prestigious program) with a few years of pharmacy experience (PharmD) as well. Does this make me a slightly more attractive applicant than someone from a typical EM background? Thanks.
 
Got Em said:
Did you guys see any applicants from EM? I know it's more difficult to match from non-anesthesia/non-PM&R, but I'm just wondering how it is for EM applicants in 2017. ABEM is a co-sponsor of pain medicine with ABA since 2014, but not sure if that matters.

I'm currently an EM resident (at a semi-prestigious program) with a few years of pharmacy experience (PharmD) as well. Does this make me a slightly more attractive applicant than someone from a typical EM background? Thanks.
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I personally didn't meet any EM residents on the trail, but I heard from someone that Univ. of Rochester took an EM resident few years back. But this could be incorrect info, so please verify.

I mean I think officially you have to be Anesthesia/PMR/Neuro/Psych to be "eligible" for ACGME pain fellowship, but I have heard of radiologists matching as well (but yes, its rare).

I don't think it matters how prestigious or non-prestigious your residency is. What you should do is email programs and see if they are open to EM residents. Then maybe do an elective there. Research in Pain helps big time too. Some programs will only look at you if you are Gas.

It will be an uphill battle, but I think plausible.
 
Blitz2006 said:
I personally didn't meet any EM residents on the trail, but I heard from someone that Univ. of Rochester took an EM resident few years back. But this could be incorrect info, so please verify.

I mean I think officially you have to be Anesthesia/PMR/Neuro/Psych to be "eligible" for ACGME pain fellowship, but I have heard of radiologists matching as well (but yes, its rare).

I don't think it matters how prestigious or non-prestigious your residency is. What you should do is email programs and see if they are open to EM residents. Then maybe do an elective there. Research in Pain helps big time too. Some programs will only look at you if you are Gas.

It will be an uphill battle, but I think plausible.
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Thank you for your input, but the bolded part is not true anymore. In 2014, all EM applicants in ACGME programs can do an ACGME fellowship since ABEM is now a co-sponsor for the fellowship with ABA. FM joined I think last year and a few more specialties will be able to soon.

There are multiple EM residents that apply and fill seats every single year. There are even ones on this board that have done so. I'll take your advice and do a pain rotation if I can fit it in, if not I may have to take vacation and do 1-2 weeks of an unofficial rotation to get letters. I'm already doing research in the field, so hopefully that counts a lot. Thanks again.
 
Hello everyone and congrats on the match! I was wondering if any of you can provide some input regarding Hopkins. I've heard that it's one of the top pain fellowships in the nation but seems like there are almost no reviews on this forum. Thank you
 
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