Pain Medicine Fellowship Video Interviews: A COVID-19 Trend or Here to Stay?

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a shift to a video format for pain medicine fellowship interviews for the 2021-2022 academic year, which represented a major change in the fellowship interview paradigm.

Objectives: Our aim was to assess the experience of a video-only format in place of in-person interviews for Pain Medicine fellowship program directors and applicants after the 2020 fellowship interview season to determine the feasibility for continuation beyond COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Study Design: Survey via Qualtrics.

Comparison of post-operative pain scores and opioid use between kyphoplasty and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) systems combined with cement augmentation.

Objective: This retrospective chart review study aims to compare demographic information, post-operative pain scores, and opioid use following treatment with kyphoplasty alone, OsteoCool™ (Medtronic) system, and SpineSTAR ® (Merit Medicine).

Materials And Methods: Following institutional review board approval, retrospective chart review of 64 patients was examined between January 2011 and December 2017. Inclusion criteria for this study comprised patients greater than 18 years old having metastatic vertebral compression fracture involving the thoracolumbar spine.