What began as a simple idea in Ratan Banik’s mind has now blossomed into a global movement, reshaping the landscape of pain management education worldwide. A few years ago, the associate professor in the Medical School on the Twin Cities campus created the Global Online Pain Fellowship to provide anesthesiologists from low-resource settings with essential pain management training without requiring them to leave their home countries.
The journey began with the recognition of a recurring pattern among anesthesiologists in low-resource countries: many were traveling abroad to seek pain fellowship programs due to a lack of local opportunities. The absence of formalized pain fellowships in many parts of the world, particularly in countries with limited healthcare resources, made it difficult for these professionals to access specialized education in pain management. In response to this gap, the Global Online Pain Fellowship was created.
