Pain Medicine Fellowship

The goal of our program is to prepare the next generation of pain management physicians for the full scope of practice opportunities, from basic science research to high volume outpatient opportunities.

MetroHealth/ Case Western Reserve University offers an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited Pain Medicine Fellowship Program. The program runs July 1st to June 30th, with 4 positions per year.

About the Fellowship

The program provides the most advanced and up-to-date training in comprehensive and interventional pain medicine. Fellows receive multi-disciplinary training with rotations through Anesthesiology, Neurology, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Psychiatry. The fellows also experience rotations in Addiction Medicine, Cancer Pain, Palliative Medicine, Radiology and Spine Surgery. The program accepts four fellows each year from an American Board of Medical Specialties accredited residency program.

The Fellowship program has core faculty including 9 Board Certified pain medicine physicians whose practice primarily involves comprehensive and interventional treatments to patients suffering from a variety of painful conditions at various locations around the city as members of the Pain and Healing Center, as well as the Spine Center.  Over 40,000 patient encounters and over 9000 procedures are performed by the Pain and Healing Center annually.

The fellows experience training in various interventional treatments, including epidural injections, medial branch injections, radiofrequency ablation, Botox, peripheral nerve stimulation, spinal cord stimulation, multifidus stimulation, intrathecal drug delivery, vertebroplasty/kyphoplasty, intradiscal regenerative therapy, minimally invasive decompression, interspinous device placement and a multitude of other interventions. There is dedicated training in surgical skills, simulation, neuroradiology, neuromodulation, fluoroscopic and ultrasound interventions. The program has ample opportunities to participate in research and each fellow participates in quality improvement and research projects. The program supports attending at least one national pain meeting during the fellowship year.

The fellows participate in dedicated weekly didactics and case reviews presented by the faculty. The program has blocked time dedicated for board preparation and reviews. Additionally, there are monthly Career Development, Journal Club, Grand Rounds and Pain Rounds (M&M). The fellows participate in monthly Spine Conferences with residents and faculty from Anesthesiology, Pain Management, Physical Therapy, PM&R, Orthopedic Surgery and Neurosurgery. The program has dedicated training courses using fluoroscopic spine, joint and nerve models, ultrasound models and virtual reality simulation in collaboration with MetroHealth Sim Center. Additionally, the program supports ample local and national fellow education training opportunities. Our program values trainee wellness and offers activities throughout the year to support the well-being of our fellows.

The program is active in research. We are involved in various clinical trials as well as in extramural funded projects, including NIH funded research. We are members of and collaborate in research with the Cleveland FES Center and MetroHealth Research Institute.