Aims Statement
 

The primary aim of the University of Wisconsin Multi‐Disciplinary Pain Medicine Fellowship Program is to foster growth of future Pain Medicine expert clinicians, educators and researchers committed to excellent, ethical and safe practice of pain medicine, and ongoing continued professional growth and practice improvement. Our goals, therefore, are to:

• Train fellows to become clinically adept pain medicine physicians
• Instill habits of professionalism and lifelong learning
• Prepare fellows for clinical or academic careers per their own preferences
• Develop a pipeline of pain medicine physicians for UW and the state of Wisconsin
• Maintain a healthy and diverse intellectual culture

We accomplish these goals by providing comprehensive first rate education in an intellectually stimulating environment conducive to acquiring the knowledge, skills, clinical judgment, and attitudes that are essential for becoming an exceptional Pain Medicine physician. We have an enthusiastic, easily accessible, multidisciplinary faculty in anesthesiology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology, medical oncology, palliative care, psychiatry and clinical psychology. All faculty are passionately involved in fellow education, training, supervision and mentoring.

Our clinical program is structured on the principle of graduated, progressive training, matching learner needs with duties that appropriately challenge them, while providing a commensurate level of supervision. The schedule is designed so fellows can gain experience and training in a variety of health care settings to achieve the skills necessary for independent practice upon graduation in academic or private practice settings.

Fellows learn outpatient pain management under the direction of board certified pain physicians with expertise in procedural intervention and comprehensive pain management. Emphasis is placed on acquiring effective communication skills, shared decision‐making, application of evidence‐based knowledge to provide for patient centered care and optimal treatment outcomes. Our fellows learn to problem‐solve and hone the process of self-directed lifelong learning. They are taught to assess patient outcomes in order to improve future decision‐making and guide practice management. There are opportunities for fellows to teach and supervise residents and medical students that rotate through pain medicine rotations. Additionally, they participate in the pain medicine didactic lectures for PM&R and anesthesia residents.

The program encourages and supports research projects. During training, fellows are expected to design in a research or quality improvement project. The project will then be presented at the annual pain research day, or away conferences.