The Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine Fellowship is a one-year program within the Department of Anesthesiology. The program is open to two fellows each year. The regional fellowship was started in 2005 by Dr. Brian Sites and now has more than twenty-five graduates. In 2018, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine Fellowship was approved.
The fellowship offers diverse training in all aspects of regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine and prepares trainees to be leaders in an academic or private practice career. The department offers mentorship by expert researchers, educators, and lecturers in the field of Anesthesiology. The Upper Valley offers a beautiful cultural and recreational location to live in and learn in during the fellowship year.
Mission
The overall educational goal for this program is the development of expertise in the practice and theory of regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine. This fellowship is designed to focus on the management of acute pain of surgical and non-surgical patients using both interventional and non-interventional modes of analgesia. The program is designed to provide an excellent clinical experience as well as provide resources that foster an interest in research and quality improvement in the field of regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine. This mission aligns nicely with our GME Mission Statement as well as Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Clinics' Mission Statement, which are both referenced below.
GME Mission Statement: Our mission is to guide and educate physicians as they develop the skills and expertise to provide safe, high-value patient care through professional, ethical and compassionate behavior. We empower physicians to address healthcare disparities, and to continuously improve their education, practice, and the community health care system as a whole.
Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Clinics Mission Statement: We advance health through research, education, clinical practice, and community partnerships, providing each person the best care, in the right place, at the right time, every time.
Program aims
The Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine fellowship program is designed to provide the graduating fellow(s) the following:
- Expertise in pre-operative evaluation and management of acute pain. Including indications and contra-indications for interventional pain management techniques.
- Expertise in intra-operative application of multi-modal analgesia, including the use of regional anesthesia (with or without the combination of general anesthesia).
- Post-operative application of regional anesthesia when appropriate.
- Peri-operative multi-modal acute pain management of surgical patients and acute pain management of hospitalized nonsurgical patients.
- Conduct a research project that is presented at a local, regional, or national meeting.
- Conduct a quality improvement project in the field of regional anesthesiology and acute pain medicine that can be applied locally.
Upon graduation, the fellow(s) will have the expertise to enter into independent practice in Regional and Acute Pain Medicine.