Pain Medicine Fellowship

Please note, beginning with the 2014-2015 fellowship year, all positions will be filled through the NRMP Match. Please register with the NRMP and submit your online application.

Match Timeline:

January 2013 - July 31, 2013
Fellowship applications accepted

June 5, 2013
NRMP Match opens for registration

August 7, 2013
Rank order list entry begins

September 25, 2013
Rank order list deadline

October 9, 2013
Match Day

July 1, 2014
Fellowship begins

The Pain Medicine Fellowship Program at Penn State Hershey and the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine is an ACGME accredited program with duration of one year. The program is accepting applicants from any ACGME accredited primary specialty. The Pain Medicine Center utilizes a multidisciplinary, comprehensive approach to manage over 7800 outpatient visits per year. 

Fellows will spend 9 months in the Pain Medicine Center. This rotation exposes the fellow to a wide variety of chronic pain conditions and is the true core of the fellowship program. During this rotation fellows will spend about one day per week seeing patients in the multidisciplinary spine center with one of the pain medicine faculty. Additionally we provide consultative care for inpatients with chronic pain conditions. The spectrum of currently accepted interventional pain management procedures are performed under direct supervision of the faculty. Additionally, an interventional pain management course on an injection phantom occurs in the beginning of the academic year that decreases the learning curve for fluoroscopically guided injections. Early on in their training, fellows are involved in evaluation and treatment of chronic pain patients who are referred to the pain center by both primary care physicians as well as specialists from various fields of medicine. Depending on their condition, up to 60% of our patients are being offered interventional pain management procedures. These include epidural steroid injections, selective nerve root injections, facet joint injections, sacroiliac joint injections, discograms, implantable pain management technologies and other procedures. 
Depending on the fellow's primary specialty, they will do rotations in the following: 
  • Spine Surgery where the fellow will participate in the evaluation of patients with spine surgeons and gain an understanding of the surgical options available for patients with pain related to spinal pathology
  • Neurophysiology with exposure to EMG and nerve conduction studies
  • Oncology with exposure to cancer pain
  • Palliative Care with exposure to end of life care
  • Neuroradiology which offers a full range of diagnostic and intervention procedures
  • Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in patients with disabilities resulting from musculoskeletal disorders including spine-related disorders, spinal cord injury, arthritis, trauma, and limb amputations
  • Acute Pain Service with high volume of epidural and peripheral nerve catheters placed for perioperative pain control
  • Psychiatry where fellows will become familiar with the basics of psychiatric assessment
  • Anesthesia where the fellow will gain experience with airway management, peripheral vascular access, intravenous sedation and management of side effects and complications associated with intravenous sedation.
Outside rotations to ACGME-accredited institutions are also available. We offer a strong didactic program, which consists of weekly lectures, monthly journal clubs, case presentations, monthly spine rounds, and daily patient-related teaching.  
 
Fellow education is centered on three major areas:
  1. Acquiring comprehensive knowledge of diagnosis and treatment of the more common chronic pain conditions
  2. Becoming proficient with a wide variety of interventional pain management procedures
  3. Providing an overview of the information required to become a consultant in pain management and preparing for the subspecialty board examination.

Contact:
David Giampetro, MD
Pain Medicine Fellowship Director
c/o Connie Williard
Penn State Hershey Anesthesiology
500 University Drive, HU32
Hershey, PA  17033
Phone:  717-531-5680
Fax:  717-531-0950
Toll-free:  800-206-7718
Email:  cwilliard@hmc.psu.edu