Fellowship in Regional Anesthesia & Acute Pain Management (RAAPM)

At UC San Diego, postgraduate fellows will be immersed in a comprehensive curriculum incorporating advanced regional anesthesia techniques, such as continuous perineural infusion and ultrasound-guidance; multimodal acute pain management strategies; and clinical and translational research.

The UC San Diego RAAPM Fellowship emphasizes expert training in state-of-the-art regional anesthesia techniques and multi-modal strategies for acute pain management. We constantly strive to keep our curriculum fresh and provide our fellows with the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and advanced training program available.

Fellowship Structure

The fellowship structure is:

Flexible, with time allocated to the inpatient and ambulatory center block rooms, Acute Pain Service, operating room, and nonclinical pursuits (i.e. research, education, quality improvement, global health)
Fellows will have 1-2 attending operating room days per week (either supervising or providing solo anesthesia coverage), which helps augment salary.

Our fellows practice in a block room setting in order to gain necessary repetition and a high volume of procedures, where they learn strategies to optimize patient flow, increase procedural efficiency and system performance, and establish patient rapport for effective follow-up

In addition to clinical training, our fellows have the opportunity to:

Participate in our productive clinical research program. Fellows' involvement in research can range from simply performing the research-related procedures to heading up their own projects and/or clinical trials.
Gain exposure to novel regional anesthesia modalities including cryotherapy and peripheral neuromodulation
Gain deeper understanding in regional anesthesia/acute pain literature, statistics, and designing studies.
Participate in improving resident and fellow education and curriculum design
Participate in pediatric regional anesthesia and pain management rotation in collaboration with Anesthesia Services Medical Group at Rady Children's Hospital San Diego
Participate in international medical missions involving regional anesthesia. See our past philanthropy work.
Rotate in the preoperative care clinic and help improve enhanced recovery after surgery pathways
Improve education projects including simulation teaching

Clinical Experience

Master basic single-injection and continuous peripheral nerve block techniques
Employ ultrasound-guidance and electrical stimulation, as well as advanced ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia procedures and paravertebral blocks
Gain experience managing continuous perineural infusions for inpatients and outpatients, as well adjunct analgesic medications
Learn to apply regional anesthesia techniques in a variety of surgical settings including trauma/burn, elective outpatient and more invasive orthopedics, vascular surgery, abdominal and pelvic procedures, head and neck surgery, and plastic/reconstructive surgery for adult and pediatric patients

Research Possibilities

Participate in the design and execution of randomized prospective controlled trials in regional anesthesia and acute pain medicine
Research in novel therapies for acute pain medicine including ultrasound-guided percutaneous cryoanalgesia and peripheral neuromodulation (i.e. peripheral nerve stimulators for postoperative pain)
Execute retrospective projects using institutional and national data to identify trends and patterns in regional anesthesia and pain practice
Design and execute improve enhanced recovery pathways for surgical patients in the acute pain service
Research in data science, machine learning/artificial intelligence, and predictive modeling for perioperative pain/opioids using large datasets
Research in the efficacy of various multimodal approaches to acute pain management
See our division's list of publications in the recent years

Fellows

2022-2023

Brian Park, MD (Brigham)
Christian Seger, MD (UCLA)
Christine Kuo, MD (UCSF)
Max Soghikian, MD (Northwestern)
Kenny Miller, MD (UCSD)
Tracy Ro, MD (Cedars Sinai)

Past Fellows

2011–2020

2020

Brian Curran, MD
Ross Drueding, MD
Brenton Alexander, MD
Jennifer Kim, MD
Lawrence Younan, MD

2019

Christina Doan, MD
Brant Wilson, MD
Melissa Millar, MD
Usha Saldanha, MD

2018

Mary Abanobi, MD
Jeffrey Walker, MD

2017

John J. Finneran, MD
Deepa Asokan, MD
Beamy Sharma, MD, MBA
Matthew Swisher, MD, MS
Kara Sievert, MD

2016

Laura Park, MD
Patrick Nguyen, MD
Rodney A. Gabriel, MD

2015

Nathalie Hernandez, MD
Nivek Amin, MD
Jennifer Jou, MD

2014

Jacklynn Sztain, MD
Rajesh Reddy, MD
Engy Said, MD

2013

Joel Feinstein, MD
Anthony Machi, MD
Bahareh Khatibi, MD

2012

Wendy Abramson MD
Amanda Monahan, MD

2011

Robert McGraw, MD
Brenna Hise, MD
Juliette Humsi, MD
Nisha Malhotra, MD

2006–2010

2010

Matt Charous, MD
Edward Kim, MD
Sarah Madison, MD
Amanda Peterson, MD

2009

Justin Heil, MD 2
Steven Suydam, MD

2008

Gloria Chang, MD
Lynna Choy, MD

2007

Steven Back, MD

2006

Vanessa Loland, MD

Eligibility & Positions

8–10 annually (August 1st start dates). Candidates must be able obtain a California medical license prior to starting fellowship.

Application Period

Our fellowship spots for the 2024–2025 cycle have been filled. Applicants for the 2025–2026 fellowship year will have to register with and apply to our program through the SF Match website below. SF Match will be the central site involved in processing applications, accepting rank lists, processing of the match itself, as well as providing post-match vacancy matching.

Apply Now

Contact

Ileana Ramirez
Anesthesiology Fellowship Coordinator
reganesthesia@ucsd.edu
Office: (858) 657-5272
Fax: (858) 249-1239

Brian P. Curran, MD
Fellowship Program Director
Email: bpcurran@health.ucsd.edu

Rodney A. Gabriel, MD MAS
Chief, Division of Regional Anesthesia
Email: ragabriel@health.ucsd.edu

Engy T. Said, MD
Chief, Division of Acute Pain
Email: esaid@health.ucsd.edu

Note to prospective applicants about the UC COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate:

UC San Diego and San Diego County Health policies mandate that all healthcare workers be up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations or have an exemption for medical or religious reasons (subject to review and approval). In addition, UC San Diego's major affiliates have similar expectations.