Curriculum

Our fellows gain experience by treating a complex and diverse patient population in various clinical settings. Fellows divide their time at four training sites throughout the year.

In addition to clinical responsibilities, fellows are expected to attend weekly didactic lectures, teaching rounds, monthly journal club meetings, grand rounds, and mortality and morbidity conferences. We also encourage our fellows to register and attend relevant national pain conferences and workshops.

We run a year-round comprehensive didactic curriculum featuring Monday and Friday one-hour lectures given by Stanford faculty from numerous divisions, special guests, and visiting faculty from 7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. These lectures cover cutting-edge topics in pain management, discussing the latest advances in basic and clinical research. This time is protected for fellows and made available to fellows regardless of rotation site so that they can participate. In addition, when in clinic, fellows have lecture and teaching from assigned faculty every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 8:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. prior to seeing patients.

Coordinators: Anuj Aggarwal, MD and Meredith Barad, MD

Every Wednesday and Friday from 12-1:30pm, physicians (including fellows), psychologists, complex case managers, and physical therapists co-present complex patient cases for discussion amongst the division, offering fellows the opportunity to learn interdisciplinary care and approach to chronic pain patients.

As communication with colleagues and our patients is the cornerstone of patient care in pain management, we ensure our fellows are trained in communication skills for future practice via dedicated trainings such as the series of ACES (Advancing Communication Excellence at Stanford), including modules and training specific to pain medicine. 

A joint journal club between the clinical and research enterprise on selected theme topics (examples including genetics and pain, sleep, and headache) is conducted every two months, allowing fellows to approach research from multiple angles and collaborate with the research faculty, postdoctoral, and doctoral scholars.

Every 4-6 weeks, a one-hour lunch time conference in which all cases being considered for spinal cord stimulation are presented jointly by physicians and psychologists to discuss unique factors, appropriateness for therapy, and offering fellows opportunities to learn about deciding between devices, lead placement, techniques, procedural planning, and more.

Coordinator: Vafi Salmasi, MD

Every other Tuesday, from 7 a.m. - 8 a.m. before clinic, a joint meeting between pain, plastic surgery, and radiology to discuss unique and complicated peripheral nerve injury and neuropathic pain patient cases. Fellows can learn from expert radiologists and surgeons regarding evaluation and approach to peripheral nerve injury and pain.

Coordinator: Vivanne Tawfik, MD, PhD

Once a year, fellows participate in a half-day simulation at the state of the art Goodman Immersive Learning Center (ILC), located in the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge (LKSC) at Stanford School of Medicine. Fellows intereact with a patient actor, reviewing and discussing evidence-based practices about opioid prescribing and approaching challenging clinical encounters.

Coordinator: Jordan Newmark, MD (adjunct faculty)

Early in the fellowship year, fellows have after-hours hands-on physical exam workshops run by our pain physical therapists discussing the anatomy as well as clinical utility of physical examination techniques in chronic pain patients, focusing on spinal and MSK related pain.

Coordinator: Corrine Cooly, DPT

All fellows complete a quality improvement project throughout the year and are provided with faculty mentors as well as time to complete a project. Whether the project is operational, educational, etc., the overarching goal is to improve the Stanford Division of Pain Medicine in a meaningful way. 

Fellows are given time to attend national conferences including NANS, AAPM and ASRA. In addition, there are ultrasound-courses and interventional courses such as those run by the California Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.

Throughout the year, suturing and surgical skills workshops are held for the pain fellows where surgical education fellows help evaluate and refine suturing and surgical skills. In addition, fellows are given access to the Goodman Surgical Simulation Center, where they have access to practice suturing and other skills throughout the year.

Coordinator: Ryan Derby, MD

In line with our philosophy of cultivating well-rounded leaders in pain management, our fellows are expected to develop their teaching skills. All fellows teach one session in our pain science lecture series, an offering to the public to educate regarding common topics in pain, along with the pain psychology fellows. In addition, fellows give a one hour lecture to the pain division on a topic of their choice as part of the Monday/Friday didactics series. Fellows help teach and oversee residents and medical students while rotating at Stanford Hospital.