Career Center

Spine Technology and Rehabilitation (STAR)

Thank you from the STAR team for your interest in our fellowship!

Created in 1994, the Spine Technology and Rehabilitation (STAR) 12 month fellowship program provides a signature PRISM approach -- seamlessly incorporating the disciplines of Pain, Regenerative, Integrative and Sports Medicine. Each of the stated disciplines provide a valuable but limited perspective of musculoskeletal medicine. Incorporating them in a complementary fashion provides a practitioner the best opportunity to address musculoskeletal medicine with global comprehension. Our numerous international endowed lectureships and award winning, multifaceted scientific investigations demonstrate the widely recognized value of our combined strategies.

Our fellows work under the supervision of our Medical Director, Dr. Joseph Fortin, renowned for the universal sign of sacroiliac joint pain – – the Fortin Finger Test (FFT).

The STAR center includes a new clinic, office-based surgical center, a comprehensive rehabilitation suite, research and administrative facilities.

A typical week consist of a blend of outpatient clinic, fluoroscopically guided spine interventions, ultrasound guided MSK and craniofacial procedures. The clinic exposure is a near equal mixture of spine, MSK and sports as well as regenerative medicine. Another integral part of your training will be intermittent involvement in our integrative and lifestyle medicine clinic, as it is vitally important to our outcomes; value added to all our other specialties. You will also participate in weekly team rounds and interact on a regular basis with our world class physical therapy staff.

As subspecialists, our focus is interventional, not on medication management. Moreover, our PRISM philosophy (with few exceptions) obviates the need for opiates and most other pain management pharmaceuticals.

 The STAR environment unites the best features of private practice and academia. We spend a great deal of time with our patients and approach each case with empathy, intellectual curiosity and scientific methodology. Our fellows are provided extensive syllabus materials which present a comprehensive review of PRISM related topics. Each syllabus is divided into sections; each section with a self-directed learning examination.

Syllabus materials include (but are not limited to):

• Interventional pain management
• Regenerative medicine
• Sports medicine
• Integrative medicine
• Imaging studies and their physical principles (x-ray, fluoroscopy, ultrasound, CT and MRI)
• Applied biomechanics and kinesiology

Additional academic endeavors include journal club presentations, research assignments and preparation for the World Institute of Pain FIPP (fellow of interventional pain practice) examination. Most notably, our fellowship provides unique apprenticeship style training, with intensive one-on-one hands-on instruction in a truly supportive and friendly team environment. Finally, teaching is also provided on the administrative and billing aspects of practice management.

Requirements for application to the STAR fellowship include the following:

• Completion of an ACGME accredited residency program in PM&R
• ABPMR board-certified or eligible
• Personal Statement
• Curriculum Vitae
• Three letters of recommendation
• Photograph
• SAE scores PGY2 and PGY3

Fluoroscopically-guided Procedures Training:

• Cervical, thoracic, and lumbar selective nerve root and epidural injections
• Cervical, thoracic, and lumbar facet and medial branch block injections
• Cervical, thoracic, and lumbar radiofrequency ablation
• Cervical, thoracic, and lumbar discography
• Sacroiliac joint injections/ arthrography and radiofrequency ablation
• Intra-articular hip injections with arthrography
• Sacrococcygeal joint injections with arthrography
• Ganglion impar blocks
• Celiac, sympathetic and superior hypogastric nerve blocks
• Kyphoplasty

Ultrasound – guided procedure Training:

• Full spectrum of craniofacial nerves (e.g. trigeminal, superior and inferior alveolar, long buccal, supra and infraorbital, greater occipital, third occipital, lesser occipital, greater auricular, auricular temporal and masseteric)
• All peripheral nerves.
• All peripheral tendon sheaths and bursae’s
• All peripheral joints

Regenerative Medicine Training (PRP, BMAC and bio-scaffolding): encompasses treatments employing the full spectrum of image-guided procedures (craniofacial, extremities and spine).

Integrative Medicine Training: Wide ranging academic exposure to the multiple facets of integrative medicine which seamlessly compliment the lifestyle aspects of sports, pain management and regenerative medicine. Instruction includes (but is not limited to) supplementation, elimination protocols, microbiome restoration programs, behavioral modification and contingency management, how to properly assess and monitor food journals, activity journals and ORAC intake.

Applications should be emailed to Joseph D. Fortin, DO, Medical Director and Fellowship Program Director: jdfortin@comcast.net

Applications will be accepted year long, but the intensive review process typically begins after January 1. Upon receiving completed application materials, we will review the materials and contact selected residents (fellowship candidates) for an interview.  A phone interview will be followed by an on-site, one day interview with physicians and staff in the clinic and procedure suites. The fellowship start date is July, however the start date is flexible pending approval of the Fellowship Program Director as well as our Clinical Coordinator. 

Fellowship Program Director: Joseph D. Fortin, DO

Fellowship Clinical Coordinator: Kathryn Leonard

Website: https://spine-technology.com

Contact information: 9502 Lima Rd., Suite 103, Fort Wayne, IN 46818; Phone (260) 459–7313, Fax (260) 436–6229

 About Spine Technology and Rehabilitation:

Spine Technology and Rehabilitation is Internationally recognized for its commitment to technical excellence in comprehensive diagnostic, interventional and rehabilitative care. STAR features interventional pain management, regenerative medicine, sports medicine and integrative medicine for all painful or physically disabling conditions. Each patient’s diagnostic and therapeutic interventions are customized, with great technical precision, to their individual needs. A strong empathic team philosophy, dedication, research, and education provide a foundation for our mission: ensuring each patient is the ultimate beneficiary of exceptional care and outcomes.