• Understanding your role as a pediatric pain physician in today's healthcare landscape
• Understanding your strengths, personality and how to leverage them in  in clinical practice, professional performance and leadership
• Qualities of a successful pediatric pain physician
• Your role in relation to your patient’s, your institution and the global context of pediatric pain medicine as a specialty

• Evolution of pediatric pain
• Common Myths around pediatric pain
• Biopsychosocial model of pain - Anatomy, biology, psychology and physiology of pain transmission, modulation
• Epidemiology of pediatric pain
• Taxonomy of pain
• Pain Assessments - accurate measurement, age appropriate assessment tools
• Pain assessments in special populations (
• Opioid dependent patients, cognitively impaired patients)
  Physical examination - basic exam, detailed examination, specific exam, neurological exam
• Laboratory work up
• Diagnosis and differential diagnosis
• Diagnostic ambiguity?
• What it means to provider, patient/family. How to handle it, how to communicate.

• Obtaining the most relevant history (Hint: Listen More than you talk). Add a script, how to arrange their clinic, pre clinic communication, setting expectations, pre clinic paperwork, in clinic paperwork, forms (handout), use examples.
• Communication with patients and families about diagnosis, treatment (Hint: Observe/watch More than you hear)
• Communicating with peers/colleagues, teams, referring providers, administrators
• Difficult conversations, difficult patients, parents, colleagues - how to win over non-believers w/o compromising or while saving your gastric mucosa
• Physical examination - basic exam, detailed examination, specific exam, neurological exam
• Laboratory work up

• Headaches
• Abdominal pain
• Neuropathic pain
• Musculoskeletal pain, myofascial pain syndromes, Fibromyalgia
• Visceral pain
• CRPS
• Rheumatological pain (including addressing AMPS)
• Cancer and other hematological pain (sickle cell, hemophilia)
• Complex and rare pain disorders
• Psychosocial aspects of pain including cultural, cross cultural, ethnic differences

• Medications - Non Opioids
• Module Opioids
• Opioid antagonists/mixed agonists antagonists

• Pain in setting of addiction
• Diversion

• PT/OT, Psychology
• CAM therapies
• Interventions and invasive treatments
• Pain Rehabilitation
• Nutrition and dietary considerations in pain management, supplements
• Treatment consideration for Palliative care and Hospice

• Sleep
• Mental health issues

• CPI/QI in pediatric pain
  Ethics - when patient refuses treatment, parent refuses, patient and parent have different goals, medication diversion, substance abuse and pain treatment
• Disclosing adverse events to patients/families
• How to make sure your visits are most efficient and effective/resounding successes
• Empowering patients and families to become active partners in their pain care

• Self care
• Understanding and averting burnout
• Qualities of a Successful pediatric pain physician
• Habits of successful/happy pediatric pain physicians

Self study - 3-4 hours/week (30 minutes early/late each day or 2 hours per weekend day)

Coaching calls - 6-8 calls, based on your convenience, recording available. This is your ongoing live support.

Community - No additional time since everyone spend time on social media in some capacity. This is your ongoing support providing useful skills while you are connected with other colleagues. Your inbuilt support community.

Everything we use to justify this as their virtual fellowship, coming to them at their convenience, in the comfort of their home or office or commute. Also I try to justify how this is only a few hours /week commitment, that is very doable considering the benefits it offers.

No enough, wait times are months to years. They are established patients with you, they will come to you and/or call you first and with expectations. If not properly addressed early, Pain becomes refractory(harder to treat), may involve multiple sites (spreads) and result sin/becomes associated with mental health issues like depression and anxiety. Your or your institution’s reimbursement, your reputation is tied to patient family satisfaction scores which are driven heavily by their pain care(or lack there of). Some institutions seek accreditation or ranking status based on the quality of care provided, again pain care forms a significant determinant there. I address this in more detail and your expected role and how to fulfil that role comfortably,  inside the course, Module 2.

Yes. However, it depends on your institution. You will need to check/clarify with them if they allow use of your CME/educational/meeting funds for this purpose. If they allow that and wish to be billed directly, you can have them contact us at [email protected]

Our CME application is in process and available for for the live weekend workshop/retreat hours. Every attempt will be made to ensure this is approved, however, we do not guarantee that unless the approval has been granted.

Technically, there is no specific board certification in Pediatric Pain medicine per se, however there are two Boards that offer board certifications in Pain Medicine, the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) and the American Board of Pain Medicine (ABPM). You may become eligible for the ABPM board certification, since its eligibility criteria is based on your education and exposure to pain care (even experiential and non ACGME accredited fellowship) training experience. So, your education & training through the Academy/this course, combined with your patient care logs and supportive documents from your departmental chief/cahir will allow you to fulfil the eligibility criteria for board certification in pain medicine. Just to be clear, today there are more board certified pain physicians through the ABPM than there are through the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA), that only considers a completed ACGME accredited pain fellowship training as eligibility criteria for board certification.

Yes, Module 5 that will offer 2 hours of training. However, each state has different requirements and you should check with your state medical board to see their requirements to determine if this will offer you all the required hours or should you supplement this.

1. As said above, traditional fellowship training is 1 year long, requires one to often relocate, delay starting practice as an independent physician, delay earning, incur interest on loans, limited spots so can be hard to get into, still a trainee and may not have the ability to make independent decisions about their patient care.
2. Training through online modules (may or may not be free) - Limited, Didactic knowledge only, time consuming commitment without any mentorship, no guidance through implementation, no course corrections, checks and balances. Does not address “soft skills”  like communication, garnering support, institutional engagement etc. which are the most important driving factors in practice, job satisfaction. No support for personal development. Curriculum is not as thorough as our Academy, which ensures the foundations for helping you evolve into your best, most confidant, self aware, compassionate, enthusiastic physician and leader. Offers real time ongoing support, guidance and mentorship. 
3. Weekend/extended weekend Trainings - Expensive (3-10 K), Requires travel, additional travel expenses (hotel, airfare, meals), Intense bulk content delivery in a short time can be overwhelming,. Not to mention the binders that sit and collect dust on your shelves or the thumb drive that never gets used again or the online PowerPoints that never get downloaded after that week/weekend, because life and work responsibilities get in the way and over shadow the enthusiasm you had for this training. No ongoing  or implementation support. No coaching, mentorship or guidance. No one to keep you motivated and encouraged in your journey to becoming a more accomplished peds pain physician.
4. Training as an observer/Going to another program for a certain period of time - Usually not an organized curriculum like fellowship training or our Academy. May or may not be able to provide direct patient care during this period. The institution does not have the same commitment to your growth as their regular trainees of faculty. No ongoing commitment to you, No guidance, support beyond that time. Requires travel and expense of stay in a different institution. May need to take sabbatical/leave from your regular work. Lose income during absence. Your hospital loses productivity. Away from family/regular life. Putting practice on hold until you can come back to your institution.
5. Our program is also unique because the curriculum is multidisciplinary, includes practical education about integrative approaches to pediatric pain spanning from simple life-style interventions, non-pharmacological techniques like mind-body medicine therapies, acupuncture, yoga, massage, nutrition, herbs and supplements to name a few. It provides framework to physicians on how to counsel their patients around CAM, how to guide them in determining what CAM therapies might be beneficial and how their patients and families can go about choosing the right CAM therapies and its providers. Specific education around opioid therapies, opioid stewardship, addiction and how to best manage patients with addiction issues in the context of pain.