Pain Management – A Decade’s Perspective of a New Subspecialty

OBJECTIVE: Pain management is increasingly recognized as a formal medical subspecialty worldwide. Israel was among the first to offer a board-certified subspecialty, formalized by the Israeli Medical Association in 2010 which is open to all clinicians with a state-recognized specialization. This paper aims at evaluating the current program across several quality control measures. DESIGN: A survey among pain medicine specialists who graduated from the Israeli Pain Management subspecialty. METHODS: All 43 graduates of the program were sent a web-based questionnaire, each related to a different time in the participants’ residency period – prior to, during and after training. RESULTS: Forty-one physicians responded to the survey (95% response rate). The most common primary specialty was Anesthesiology (44%), followed by Family Medicine (22%). One-third of the respondents applied to the program over five years after completing their initial residency. Two-thirds reported that they acquired all or most of the professional tools required by a pain specialist. Insufficient training was mentioned regarding addiction management (71%), special population needs (54%) and interventional treatment (37%). A high proportion (82%) responded that the examination contributed to their training and almost all perceived their period of subspecialty as having a positive value in their personal development. Two-thirds of respondents had not yet actively engaged beyond the clinical aspect with other entities responsible for formulating guidelines and other strategic decision-making. CONCLUSION: We hope the findings of this first-of-a-kind survey will encourage other medical authorities to construct formal training in pain medicine and enable this discipline to further evolve.