Eligibility for admission:

Candidate must have a post-graduate degree, diploma or DNB in anaesthesia, PMR, orthopaedics, radiology, neurology, neurosurgery or rheumatology.

Admission process:

Interested candidates can apply for a one-year fellowship through an online application form duly filled in along with a document of payment of online entrance examination fees of 0 INR. The date of the entrance exam will be announced on the website at regular intervals. The syllabus for the examination is pain pathway, pharmacotherapy of pain and definitions/nomenclatures of different types of pain(IASP). Six top participants will be selected based on the examination results.

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Eligibility to appear for the final exam at the end of 1 year:

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• Completion of 3 month contact period

• Submission of the countersigned logbook

• Acceptance letter of the submission of one article in a peer-reviewed journal.

• All candidates must submit an article in the first 6 months of their fellowship.

• Payment of examination fees.

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Syllabus:

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Topics to be completed in the first 3months (Online Mode only):

1. Clinical Methods in Pain Medicine: History taking in pain medicine, evaluation of headache, neck pain, shoulder pain, elbow pain, wrist and hand pain, low back pain, hip pain, knee pain, leg pain, ankle and foot pain, widespread pain, visceral pain and presentation of various arthropathies

2. Non-pharmacological management of pain: Physical therapies and rehabilitation

3. Psychological evaluation and therapy: Various scales to measure depression. Comprehensive psychological assessment Treatment options Individual, group and family psychotherapy Cognitive-behavioural therapies Biofeedback and relaxation techniques

4. Pharmacotherapy: Local anaesthetics, Dextrose, Steroid, Opioids, NSAIDs and COX2 inhibitors Adjuvants/Co-analgesics: antidepressants, anticonvulsants, other adjuvants, Dye used in interventions

5. Basics of USG: Physics, Machine, Knobology, Tissue Characterization

6. C-arm guided procedures: Radiation safety, Fluroanantomy, MRI of lumbar spine and X-Ray of various joints and spine

Topics to be covered in the next 3months (Offline/Online)

1. C-arm guided interventions of the lumbosacral spine: transforaminal/ interlaminar epidurals, facet joint medial branch block/discography/sacroiliac joint/caudal/ganglion impar

2. USG-Guided Interventions: Shoulder, Elbow, Wrist and Hand, Hip, Knee, Ankle and Foot, Lumbar Spine, Sacroiliac joint, Caudal epidural

3. Regional pain syndromes: Myofascial Pain Syndrome, Lower Back Pain

4. Neuropathic pain conditions: CRPS, post-stroke pain, phantom limb pain, post-herpetic neuralgia, painful diabetic neuropathy

5. Rheumatological conditions: Rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthropathies, crystal 

arthropathy, SLE, DMARDS and Biologics

 

Topics to be covered in the last 6months (Offline/Online)

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1. Regional pain syndromes: Headache, facial pain syndrome, neck pain, thoracic and abdominal pain, Pelvic and perineal pain

2. Specific types of painful conditions: Trigeminal neuralgia, Cancer Pain, including issues of death and dying, palliative care and hospice, Pain of unknown aetiology, Pain in children and elderly

3. Interventional Pain Management (USG/ C-arm guided procedures, hybrid procedures)

Interventions & nerve blocks in head and neck, Interventions & nerve blocks in the cervical and thoracic region, Advanced interventional procedures– endoscopic discectomy, spinal cord stimulators, intrathecal implants, vertebroplasty.

1. Neurolysis- Radiofrequency and cryoneurolysis, neurolytic procedures for cancer pain, neurolytic procedures for knee pain, hip pain, and shoulder pain.

2. Regeneration therapies- USG guided regeneration therapies, PRP, Dextrose prolotherapy

 

 

General instructions:

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1. Maintaining a log book is mandatory and it needs to be submitted before the final exam.

2. One research article manuscript acceptance letter is to be submitted before the exam.

3. There should be a record of OPD/IPD participation

4. Details of participation in academic programmes like seminars, symposiums, clinical meetings, webinars, conferences, and workshops.

5. Documentation of involvement in teaching programmes

6. Documentation of participation as a organising committee member in any conference or workshop

7. Documentation of the procedure observed, assisted and performed.

8. The candidate must have performed at least 50 interventions during his/her academic year.

9. The logbook is to be filled regularly by the candidate.

10. The entries need to be endorsed by the concerned consultant

11. On the completion of the course by the candidate, this log book should be deposited in the department for future reference