Royal College Pain Medicine Fellowship

[CGreens]

Hi all, 

In America I know it is pretty common for both anesthesia and PM&R grads to pursue pain medicine fellowships.

I was wondering in Canada if PM&R commonly pursues pain fellowships? I noticed many of these fellowships in Canada are housed in Anesthesia departments, but was wondering how common it is for PM&R (and other specialties like IM) to apply given that it is available as a fellowship through the medical subspecialty match now? Alternatively, can PM&R residents tailor their electives to feel competent in chronic pain management (+/- interventional pain management) by the end of their residency?

Thanks!

[PMRDoc]

Hey there, PMR staff here, recent grad, who chose to do an alternative route rather than the official route - these will be province specific... I am in Ontario. 

I cannot say how common it is for PMR to pursue pain as PMR is a very very broad specialty...but it's certainly not uncommon. However, PMR residents have a strong success in matching to the limited spots if they so choose to pursue the 2 year pain residency after their 5 year PMR specialty (can receive up to a year in credit, so functionally just an additional 1 year). 

I am biased, but I feel that the PMR residency is exceptionally well suited to set up an interested person in MSK and chronic pain if that is their area of interest/strong passion. It provides for a phenomenal background and lense in which to treat patients who suffer from chronic pain. All your core rotations (SCI, ABI, CVA, amp, EMG, Peds/neuromuscular) focus on increasing a person's function in the area of their injury/illness, and pain itself overlaps with many of those populations.  I was able to include interventional training throughout my 5 year training and have gone directly into practice, with just an assessment to be done to ensure competency. This could only really be done through PMR though in my opinion. This was because of the location I trained at, and the 'perfect storm' of mentor availability, willingness of my program to let me pursue my long-held (halfway through medical school) desire to do this as my practice type in someway, etc, etc. 

Happy to chat more -  Absolutely love what I do and how it helps patients, I wouldn't change a thing.