Program Accreditation

The pain medicine fellowship at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Our last ACGME site visit was in March 2011 and our accreditation status is continued accreditation. The program is approved for 4 total fellow positions.

Information specific to program requirements for a pain medicine training program and milestones for fellow performance may be found at the ACGME’s Anesthesiology Review Committee (RC).

Board Certification

The ABA-American Board of Anesthesiology-certifies physicians in pain medicine by administering the Pain Medicine examination. Our fellowship program expects fellows to become certified in Pain Medicine.

Pain medicine is the medical discipline concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of the entire range of painful disorders. Because of the vast scope of the field, pain medicine is a multidisciplinary subspecialty. The expertise of several disciplines is brought together in an effort to provide the maximum benefit to each patient. Although the care of patients is heavily influenced by the primary specialty of physicians who subspecialize in pain medicine, each member of the pain treatment team understands the anatomical and physiological basis of pain perception, the psychological factors that modify the pain experience, and the basic principles of pain medicine.

Subspecialty certification is detailed in the ABA's BOI (Booklet of Information).