Pain Medicine Fellowship

Grace Chen

Thank you for your interest in our Pain Medicine fellowship program.

This program offers four 1-year ACGME-accredited fellowship positions for board eligible or certified anesthesiologists, neurologists, physiatrists, and psychiatrists. Applications will be accepted through ERAS starting in December of each year. For more information information, please contact us at apomfellowships@ohsu.edu.

Mission Statement:

The program will provide training in the advanced interdisciplinary evaluation and medical and procedural management of acute, chronic, and cancer-related pain, in an environment that stimulates the spirit of inquiry, initiative and cooperation demonstrated by exceptional clinical outcomes and scholarly output as aligned with the broader departmental and university missions.

Program Aims:

1. Incorporate clinical research into excellence in clinical care.

2. Teach trainees multidisciplinary pain management, incorporating knowledge and practice from multiple specialties as well as complementary modalities.

3. Provide training for the comprehensive perioperative pain physician, including inpatient and outpatient settings.

4. Recruit, train and graduate diverse fellowship candidates to serve diverse patient populations.

5. Create a sense of community and wellness to foster and support ongoing development of faculty and learners, including both faculty-learner and peer-to-peer interactions.

The goal of the fellowship program is for the fellow to be exposed to the advanced interdisciplinary evaluation and management of acute, chronic, and cancer-related pain, and to procedures related to the treatment of these patients.

Upon completion of the fellowship, the fellow will:

  1. Understand advanced anatomical and pathophysiological mechanisms involved in both common and uncommon chronic malignant and non-malignant pain problems.Be able to evaluate and manage inpatient consultations for parenteral/oral opioid conversion, and complex malignant and non-malignant pain problems.
  2. Be able to evaluate and manage acute, postoperative pain. This experience includes postoperative epidural analgesia management, as well as other forms of regional infusion therapies.
  3. Have an advanced knowledge of pain management related pharmacological principles, including responsible use of controlled substances.
  4. Be able to evaluate patients appropriately for and perform procedures involved in advanced pain management techniques (e.g. lumbar, thoracic, and cervical epidural access and injection techniques; selective nerve root blocks; trigger point injections; neurolytic techniques, including radio frequency ablation techniques; neuroaugmentation techniques, including spinal cord stimulation; chronic neuraxial drug delivery techniques, including implanted intrathecal drug administration systems.)
  5. Gain experience in the principles of interdisciplinary pain management, including psychological and physiotherapy evaluations and treatment options.
  6. Have an advanced understanding of the role of the pain management physician in the palliative care of patients with end-stage disease.
  7. Be able to function as an educator of these principles and techniques.

At the end of the fellowship, the fellow will be able to function as an independent, board eligible Pain Management Physician and Consultant, competent in the interdisciplinary evaluation and treatment (including advanced interventional techniques) of complicated and routine pain problems.

We provide multidisciplinary assessment and treatment of the full spectrum of ambulatory pain patients. In order to do this effectively, we have a facility and staff dedicated to pain management.

We know that ongoing pain changes a person's life in all areas, and we are here to help. Our approach is individualized, because we know every person experiences pain in a different way. Our team of pain specialists looks at the whole person to evaluate your pain problem and develop a plan with you to improve your quality of life and pain control. We are unique because we bring together a dedicated group of professionals to provide state of the art pain assessment and treatment, research into new treatments, and coordination with your health care providers.

As the only academic pain center in Oregon we bring expertise to pediatric patients, those with cancer, those with pain from nerve damage, back pain, and many other conditions. Working with our surgical colleagues we help make surgery as painless as possible with our inpatient pain services. We provide consultation to patients and physicians throughout the northwest as well as here in Portland, and we provide leadership and education in the field of pain medicine for our patients, our colleagues, and our region.

Assistant Professor
Pain Medicine Program Director       

Prospective fellows

Applications will be accepted only through ERAS.  Applications will be considered complete when they include:

  • Dean's letter from medical school 
  • Letter of recommendation from Residency Program Director
  • 2 additional letters of recommendation
  • Medical school transcript 
  • Copies of all USMLE board score results 
  • Personal statement
Your personal statement should include a brief autobiography, your expectations of a fellowship program and a statement of your future career goals. A recent photo is also helpful to us. For IMGs, you must have an ECFMG certificate. In addition, those applicants who are not USA citizens must be able to meet the current requirements for an appropriate USA visa and be eligible to work in the United States upon matriculation. 
Your application will be reviewed upon completion. Interviews are offered to those candidates who fulfill our Department's criteria. Interviews will be scheduled between May and August.

Title IX compliance

OHSU provides equal opportunities to all individuals without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, disability, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected by law. It does not discriminate on any status protected by law. This policy applies to all employment, education, volunteer, and patient care related activities or in any other aspect of OHSU’s operation. Retaliation for reporting discrimination is prohibited. To make an inquiry or report an incident of discrimination, contact OHSU’s Office of Civil Rights Investigations and Compliance (OCIC) at 503-494-5148, ocic@ohsu.edu.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”) protects individuals from discrimination and harassment on the basis of sex or gender in any educational program or activity operated by recipients of federal aid. OHSU, as a recipient of federal funds, complies with Title IX and 34 CFR Part 106 by prohibiting sex and gender discrimination and harassment, which includes sexual misconduct and sexual violence, in education programs, activities, employment, and admissions. Inquiries about Title IX compliance or sex/gender discrimination and harassment may be directed to the OHSU Title IX Coordinator titleix@ohsu.edu.

Inquiries may also be directed to the U.S. Department of Education, Western Region Office for Civil Rights at 206-607-1600, ocr.seattle@ed.gov.