The one-year Pain Medicine Fellowship at Mayo Clinic's campus in Jacksonville, Florida, provides comprehensive training in acute, chronic, and interventional pain management. During the training program, you acquire the medical knowledge and technical skills necessary to independently practice pain medicine in a safe and effective manner through a multidisciplinary education process.

As a member of Mayo Clinic's Department of Pain Medicine (a multispecialty department), you work with board-certified physicians in pain medicine from anesthesia, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and neurology.

The fundamental educational experience involves outpatient assessment of chronic pain. Emphasis is placed on learning to perform appropriate evaluations and formulate multimodal treatment plans. You gain experience with all aspects of pain therapies, including:

• Medication management
• Physical modalities
• Therapeutic exercise
• Behavioral therapies
• Interventional treatments

Acute pain medicine training involves hospital-based patients at Mayo Clinic Hospital with acute painful medical conditions or post-surgical pain. As a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, Mayo Clinic provides the opportunity to treat complex cancer pain, including the placement of implantable drug-delivery systems. Palliative care experience is gained through working with a nearby hospice facility and the palliative care consultation service.

The fellowship places an emphasis on interventional pain medicine training. You learn indications, contraindications, relevant anatomy, and safe techniques for interventional pain treatments. You develop competence in neuraxial and regional interventional pain therapies — including neuromodulation — and learn how to incorporate these therapies into a comprehensive treatment program.

Accreditation

The fellowship is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

Certification

The program fulfills the training requirements for board certification as defined by the:

• American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA)
• American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (ABPMR)
• American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology Inc.

After successfully completing the program, graduates are eligible to take these exams:

• Pain Medicine (PM) Examination (ABA)
• Pain Medicine Examination (ABPMR)
• Certification in Pain Medicine (ABPN)

Program history

The Pain Medicine Fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, began in 1993. Two fellows will complete this program annually.