Table 1.

Changes Established by 2007 ACGME Program Requirements for Fellowship Training in Pain Medicine (ACGME, 2007)

• Only one ACGME accredited Pain Medicine fellowship program will be approved per institution.
• The required didactic curriculum has been completely revised to incorporate the IASP Core Curriculum for Professional Education in Pain as the core of the curriculum.
• All trainees will be required to gain verified exposure to all four parent specialties: anesthesiology, PM&R, neurology, and psychiatry, through defined clinical rotations with minimal documented clinical experience in each discipline.
• While all programs will be required to expose trainees to the range of interventional pain modalities available for pain treatment, a subset of programs may offer expanded training in interventional pain medicine through an established “Advanced Interventional Track.” Suggested features of this track include the following:
• an expanded didactic curriculum on interventional pain medicine
• minimum suggested numbers of interventional procedures for each trainee
• a requirement that program directors complete a final summary letter detailing the specific interventions with which each trainee has demonstrated competence.