Multidisciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship
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Steven P. Stanos, DO |
The Multidsciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship integrates several areas of pain medicine, including chronic pain rehabilitation, cancer pain, acute pain, interventional pain management, pediatric chronic pain, neurology, psychiatry and research. The fellowship is a collaboration between two of the main teaching centers at McGaw Medical Center: Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Dr. David Walega is the Program Director and Dr. Steven Stanos is the Assistant Program Director for the Multidsciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship.
The fellowship offers five positions for a one-year appointment. All fellow candidates who are selected for interviews will meet with several faculty members and trainees. Four of the fellow positions will be filled by residents who graduated from an anesthesiology residency program and one position will be filled from a resident who graduated from a physiatry residency program. Exceptional candidates from other training disciplines may be considered. Candidates may send their application materials as soon as July 1 and interviewing typically begins in August each year. For further information about the application and selection process, please click here.
Faculty members from the Division of Pain Medicine and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago are recognized experts in pain medicine, regional anesthesia and rehabilitation. They are active in the American Society of Regional Anesthesia, the American Pain Society, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and the Midwest Pain Society. They are members of the editorial boards for Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, Clinical Journal of Pain, and MD Consult-Pain Medicine.
Faculty have written two important pain medicine textbooks, including, Raj's Practical Management of Pain by Honorio T. Benzon, MD et al. and the Essentials of Pain Medicine and Regional Anesthesia by Drs. Honorio T. Benzon and Robert E. Molloy. There is very active research in the division where several papers, abstracts, book chapters, and books have resulted.
Clinical Training
The Division of Pain Medicine evaluates and manages postoperative pain and inpatient pain consultations. Inpatient consults are seen at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH). In the outpatient Anesthesiology Pain Medicine Center, patients are seen from 8:00 am-5:00 pm during the week. Fluoroscopy-assisted nerve blocks, discograms, spinal cord stimulation trials and other interventional techniques are performed in one of two dedicated fluoroscopy suites. In addition, there are four examination rooms and a four-bay recovery room. All equipment in the pain center is state-of-the-art. Peripheral nerve blocks and joint injections are often performed with ultrasound guidance.
Fellows are also trained in pediatric pain medicine and multidisciplinary pain management, including psychiatric evaluation and psychological treatment modalities and physical medicine. Approximately 1,500 new consults and 4,000 follow-up visits are seen in the Anesthesiology Pain Medicine Center each year with more than 3,000 injections are performed annually. These procedures include epidural injections, nerve root and facet blocks, sacroiliac joint injections, sympathetic blocks, discography and intradiscal procedures, rhizotomies, and spinal cord simulation trials. Fellows implant spinal cord stimulators, intrathecal pumps and perform vertebral augmentation procedures with pain medicine faculty. Scholarly Activities
The Division of Pain Medicine presents three to four conferences to the anesthesiology department every year during Departmental Grand Rounds. Fellows are encouraged to present cases at these conferences. Fellows also participate in monthly classic and contemporary journal clubs, quarterly morbidity conferences and quarterly research conferences throughout the year. There are monthly interdisciplinary conferences with neurosurgery and orthopedic surgery. Furthermore, there is a formal didactic program specifically for the fellows.
Fellows participate in ongoing research projects or initiate their own studies during the training year. In the latter case, fellows learn how to write protocols, create proper research design, incorporate appropriate statistics, and write a paper with support from full time research staff within the department of anesthesiology. Lastly, each fellow develops a Systems-Improvement Project during their training.
Fellow Benefits
In addition to departmental benefits, fellows funded through the Department of Anesthesiology receive:
1. Memberships to the American Pain Society (APS) and American Society of Regional Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine (ASRA)
2. Funding to attend the ASA, ASRA, or an Academic/Research meeting
3. Funding for an additional scientific meeting
Fellows who present an abstract at an approved national scientific meeting will receive funding for their trip, provided the Program Director approves the absence from training.
4. A copy of Dr. Benzon et al.'s textbook: Raj's Practical Management of Pain (2008)
5. $500 Educational Fund
Fellows funded through the Rehabilitation Center of Chicago receive:
1. Memberships to the American Pain Society (APS) and American Society of Regional Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine (ASRA)
2. A copy of Dr. Benzon et al.'s textbook: Raj's Practical Management of Pain (2008)
3. Additional benefits provided by the PM & R Chronic Pain Program.