The Department of Anesthesiology and Washington University School of Medicine, together with Barnes-Jewish Hospital, sponsor an ACGME-accredited fellowship in Anesthesiology Pain Management. Through this fellowship training program, we are committed to providing top-quality experience to pain management fellowship trainees, with a balanced exposure to acute, chronic and cancer pain. Our multi-faceted, one-year program is designed to prepare a consultant for a rewarding career in pain management.
Washington University Medical Center is a tertiary referral center and Level-1 trauma center. This broad clinical base gives pain management fellowship trainees an excellent opportunity to participate in managing a wide spectrum of pain problems. Our pain management clinical practice is largely divided into two arenas: the inpatient and outpatient pain management services.
The Inpatient Pain Management Service facilitates the exposure and training of fellows in managing postoperative and post trauma pain, using IV PCA, various nerve blocks, and complex pharmacological management, and also allows fellows to develop skills in dealing with administrative and political issues.
The chronic Pain Management outpatient practice is based at the Pain Management Center, Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Anesthetic, medical, and interventional techniques are used within the context of multidisciplinary pain management. In addition to the evaluation of patients, fellows gain expertise in fluoroscopically guided interventional pain techniques, such as various nerve blocks, neuraxonal blocks, joint injections, neurolytic procedures, and radiofrequency lesioning. A multidisciplinary approach is widely used and encouraged, through the regular and active participation of a pain psychologist, physical therapists, and neurologists. Various treatment modalities include acupuncture, biofeedback, physical therapy, psychotherapy, and interventional techniques such as local anesthetic and neurolytic nerve blocks, implantable pumps and spinal cord stimulators.
The importance of didactics is emphasized through weekly multidisciplinary pain conferences, didactic lectures and journal clubs. Weekly anesthesiology grand rounds and clinical conferences help fellows to remain updated with anesthesiology. Fellows are regular presenters at weekly didactic lectures. Interaction with well-renowned anesthesiology faculty helps fellows to prepare for board examination. Periodic "hands-on" cadaver lab sessions provide excellent opportunities for reviewing techniques of interventional pain management. Fellowship training may include rotations in psychology, neurology, physical therapy and/or other rotations.
Participation of pain management fellowship trainees in research is included. A significant involvement in basic science research would likely result in a prolongation of the training period beyond the one-year clinical fellowship program.
Fellow applicants for this dynamic, multi-faceted, multidisciplinary pain fellowship program must provide a copy of their current cv, a formal personal statement letter, and three letters of recommendation, one of which should be from their department chairman. Mail or fax to:
Robert A. Swarm, M.D.
Director, Pain Fellowship Program
Washington University School of Medicine
Campus Box 8054
4921 Parkview Place, 10th Floor
St. Louis, MO 63110-1093
Fax: 314-362-9471
Phone: 314-747-0202
E-mail: swarmr@wustl.edu