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University of Utah Health's ACGME-accredited Pain Medicine fellowship offers comprehensive training in interdisciplinary and interventional pain management. Our physician faculty are all fellowship-trained, board-certified Pain Medicine specialists. Patient care emphasizes an individualized philosophy, and adheres to evidence-based medical, behavioral, and interventional approaches.  

Learning sites include the University of Utah Pain Management Center, the Huntsman Cancer Hospital, and the Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

University Pain Management Center – Interdisciplinary Care

Each fellow spends approximately 5 months at our tertiary referral pain management clinic staffed by physicians, nurses, physical therapists, and pain psychologists working in an integrated setting. Comprehensive treatment plans including medical management, behavioral and physical therapies, lidocaine and ketamine infusion treatments and both basic and advanced interventional procedures are developed in a collaborative fashion for each patient in a team approach.

Huntsman Cancer Hospital - Cancer Pain

Each fellow spends approximately 10 weeks at the Huntsman Cancer Institute as a member of the Supportive Oncology Pain Service. Here, fellows gain a unique experience in the interdisciplinary management of complex cancer pain, including medication management, inpatient consults, neurolytic procedures, kyphoplasty, and a busy intrathecal pump service. 

Veterans Affairs Medical Center - Interventional Pain Management

Each fellow spends approximately 10 weeks at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center as part of the Interventional Pain Service. This rotation focuses on building procedural skills including routine spine and peripheral injections as well as advanced procedures including neuromodulation trials and implants, vertebral augmentation, basivertebral nerve ablation and more. 

In addition to the core learning sites our fellows gain exposure to other valuable areas of Pain Medicine

  • Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation including musculoskeletal clinic, EMG and nerve conduction studies, and ultrasound-guided injection clinics during their VA rotations
  • Psychology including didactic and observational experience with group therapy and individual counseling for patients with chronic pain at the Pain Management Center
  • Headache Medicine with a one-week rotation at University of Utah’s Headache Clinic including interdisciplinary headache management and experience with electrophysiology and imaging interpretation.
  • Practice Management with a one-week rotation learning from experienced private practice physicians with didactic education on contracting, billing, coding, compliance and other business aspects of pain medicine
  • Research with a one-week rotation paired with a faculty mentor to develop or advance a scholarly project including abstracts, posters, manuscripts, IRB development, etc. 

Protected Didactic Time

  • Pain 101 is a 6-week series of daily one-hour lectures on the fundamentals of pain medicine that occurs at the beginning of fellowship
  • Pain 201 occurs each Wednesday morning for 1 hour in a “flipped classroom” model covering advanced pain medicine topics, neuromodulation curriculum, journal club, communication series, and more.
  • Division Didactics occurs on Friday mornings for 2 hours and includes keyword topics, grand rounds presentations, invited speaker lectures, case conferences, multispecialty neuromodulation conference

Electives

2 weeks of electives are chosen midway through the year so the fellow can focus on his/her perceived deficiencies or tailor remaining training to best fit their career plans. Examples include additional training at following sites:

  • Huntsman Cancer Institute
  • VA Medical Center training
  • Pain Management Center
  • Headache Clinic
  • Palliative Medicine
  • PM&R Clinic
  • Addiction Medicine