Rolling admission · Istanbul · Delivered in English
Follow how a university anaesthesiology department assesses chronic pain, selects patients for interventional procedures and runs its acute pain service, with no procedural role, where pain lists are on the schedule during your dates.
What you see depends on the department's clinical calendar during your placement; the list below describes the department's usual scope, not a guaranteed programme.
Chronic pain is assessed before it is treated. The clinic visit usually begins with the pattern of the pain, what has already been tried and what the patient can no longer do, followed by examination and a review of previous imaging. The team works towards a description of the pain mechanism, broadly nociceptive, neuropathic or mixed, because the mechanism guides both the choice of medicines and the question of whether a procedure has a role. Warning features that point to a condition needing urgent investigation are looked for at this stage. Observers hear this reasoning in the consultation and in the discussion that follows it.
An interventional procedure is generally considered when a specific source of pain is suspected and simpler measures have not been enough. Epidural injection is commonly discussed for radiating limb pain that matches the imaging findings; radiofrequency ablation usually follows a diagnostic block that has given clear, temporary relief. Before any procedure the team reviews anticoagulant and antiplatelet treatment, signs of infection, allergies and consent, and explains what the procedure can realistically offer. Procedures are rarely presented as a cure: they are placed inside a wider plan that usually includes medicines, rehabilitation and follow-up.
Acute pain follows a different rhythm. After surgery the acute pain service reviews patients on the wards, adjusts multimodal analgesia, supervises patient-controlled analgesia and watches for side effects such as sedation or nausea. Regional and neuraxial techniques chosen in theatre shape the first post-operative days, so decisions made by the anaesthetist, the surgeon and the ward nurses are closely linked. In this hospital pain management also has a seat at the multidisciplinary spine board. An observer who follows one patient from the clinic to the procedure and the review visit sees how these decisions connect.
This page covers the pain service alone: the pain clinic, the interventional lists and the acute pain round. The parent anaesthesiology page spans the whole perioperative department, and the critical care page covers the intensive care unit. Spine surgery, where structural causes of pain are treated by operation, is a separate specialty with its own pages.
Graduate physicians and trainees in anaesthesiology, neurology, physical medicine or family practice who want to understand how a pain service chooses between medicines, procedures and referral; clinical-year students are eligible but usually gain more from the wider department.
Anaesthesiologists with a specialist qualification who state interventional pain medicine as their interest within the anaesthesiology department; the department decides allocation, and the pain service is followed alongside its theatre and intensive care work.
Both routes are strictly observational: observers attend theatre and clinic without patient contact, do not scrub or assist, and are not assessed on any procedure.
| Clinical Observership | Clinical Fellowship | |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | 1, 2 or 4 weeks (extension possible on request) | 12 to 24 months, agreed with the host department |
| Who it is for | Medical students in clinical years and graduate physicians from outside Turkey | Recognised specialists and family physicians seeking advanced exposure beyond standard specialty training |
| Format | Full-time, strictly observational — outpatient clinics, operating theatre, ward rounds, case discussions | Extended observational attachment to one department: daily practice, service structure and specific techniques |
| Certificate | Certificate of attendance issued by the host hospital and signed by its Medical Director | Certificate on completion issued under the accreditation of the affiliated university school of medicine |
| Start | Rotations typically begin on a Monday; dates are agreed individually | Start date planned around the date you request and the department's capacity |
One online application for both routes. State Pain Medicine (Algology) as your focus in your objectives; ATDERA reviews the file and prepares it for the Anaesthesiology department, then replies with next steps, typically within two working days.
Already started? The application page picks up where you left off.
ATDERA Global Limited (Companies House No. 17173428, registered in England and Wales) coordinates this programme for a university teaching hospital in Istanbul. ATDERA is not a hospital and does not provide clinical care; admission decisions and certificates are the host hospital's.
One online application covers both routes and all twenty-one specialties — details, programme choice and documents in five short steps. ATDERA reviews the file and replies with next steps, typically within two working days.
