UW Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine: Advancing Medicine and Health for All

Welcome to UW, home of the world’s first multidisciplinary pain clinic. Committed to excellence, the UW Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine provides comprehensive compassionate pain care and guidance on the latest evidence-based practices ranging from multidisciplinary rehabilitation to innovative interventional treatments. Under the leadership of Dr. John Bonica, UW Medicine launched the world’s first pain clinic organized around a novel, multidisciplinary approach to treating pain. Since its inception in 1961, UW Pain Medicine has been an international model for the diagnosis, study and treatment of chronic, cancer, and acute pain.

Clinical Excellence and Locations

Our faculty offer diverse clinical experience in anesthesiology, its subspecialties, and in pain medicine. We see a large variety of patients at the only academic center serving the five-state “WWAMI” region. Clinical services are provided across several key locations, including:

• Harborview Medical Center
• UW Medical Center – Northwest
• UW Medical Center – Montlake
• UW Medical Center – Montlake / Roosevelt Ambulatory Surgery Center
• VA Puget Sound Health Care System

Education and Residency Training

Our residency program offers 26 categorical anesthesia residency positions and features five unique training opportunities, including our Bonica Scholars research program, across eight hospital sites. These highly qualified clinicians include two Bonica Scholar Research Track residents and two Critical Care Medicine Track residents. Furthermore, our fellowship program features a variety of clinical and research training opportunities in all four ACGME-accredited subspecialty areas as well as eight innovative non-ACGME-accredited subspecialty areas.

Research and Innovation

We’re innovating at one of the top funded anesthesiology research programs in the country and advancing science within one of the top 20 academic research institutions in the world. Research opportunities abound, as the UW School of Medicine receives more funding than any other public school in the country. Key metrics of our research success include:

The Bonica Scholars Program

To prepare residents for the challenge of leading the future development of academic anesthesiology and research in all aspects of this field, UW Anesthesiology has created the Bonica Scholars Program. This program is designed to provide advanced training opportunities for exceptional individuals who desire a career in academic anesthesiology. It is a 4-year program intended to provide high quality clinical training and comprehensive mentoring from program leadership and from externally-funded principal investigators.

T32 Research Fellowship

The T32 Research Fellowship is a program offered through an institutional training grant to develop clinician-scientists at the postdoctoral level of training. Our program allows trainees to receive a minimum of two years of intensive research training with an opportunity to extend their training to a third year. The T32 fellowship guarantees 80% protected time to the trainee to pursue research. Core research areas include:

• Cardiovascular-Pulmonary Biology
• Clinical Outcomes Research & Epidemiology
• Genome Sciences & Bioinformatics
• Neurosciences
• Pain and Pharmacology

Global Health Initiatives

The Department of Anesthesiology is currently conducting several global research projects in collaboration with National and International Academic Medical Institutions. These projects are essential to the mission of our global program, which is committed to clinical service, education and training, and research around the world. Notable initiatives include the Perioperative Mortality Rate (POMR) project in Rwanda and the Baldwin Grant project, Building Capacity to Improve Surgery and Anesthesia Care in Sub-Saharan Africa, which works jointly with partners in Zambia and Ethiopia to build local capacity to measure and improve outcomes for patients undergoing surgery.

Community Building and Belonging

Community building and belonging is integral to our mission. Our Community Building & Belonging Council promotes data-driven and collaborative initiatives in patient care, education, and research. The council’s aims, vision, and diversity of lived experiences and perspectives ensures that our patients, peers, trainees, and colleagues will be treated with dignity and have equitable access to healthcare and education.