Pain Management and Palliative Care Pharmacy

The PGY2 Pain Management and Palliative Care Pharmacy Resident position has been filled for the 2025-2026 residency year.

Required Rotations (one month unless otherwise noted) 

• Orientation
• Acute Pain Management
• Addiction Consult Team
• Adult Palliative Care I and II
• Ambulatory Pain and Palliative Care (longitudinal or block, as available)
• Hospice I (longitudinal or block, as available)
• Pain Pharmacy Service
• Psychiatry
• Institutional Pain Management

Elective Rotations 

The program is flexible in design to offer three-to-four months of elective rotations targeted to the resident’s interest. Any of the rotations listed above may be repeated or elective rotations can be tailored specifically to meet an individual resident’s needs, not limited to:  

• Academia
• Acute Pain Management II
• Addiction Consult Team II
• Adult Heart Failure/Transplant
• Adult Palliative Care III
• Hospice II
• Inpatient Medical Oncology
• Opioid Stewardship
• Pediatric Palliative Care
• Pharmacogenomics

• Completion of 10 rotations, one month in length (unless noted elsewhere) with July assigned as Orientation and December as Research
• Completion of required rotations: Acute Pain Management, Addiction Consult Team, Adult Palliative Care I and II, Ambulatory Pain and Palliative Care (longitudinal or block), Hospice I (longitudinal or block), Pain Pharmacy Service, Psychiatry, and Institutional Pain Management (longitudinal))
• Completion of elective rotations: 3 electives if Ambulatory Pain and Palliative Care or Hospice is chosen as a block, or 4 if longitudinal
• Submission of a manuscript suitable for publication for the research project
• Submission of a manuscript suitable for publication for the writing project

• Completion of a formal CE presentation
• Completion of research presentation
• Completion of weekend staffing requirements (approximately 15 clinical day weekend shifts per year with 1 major and minor holiday block and 2 gap days)
• Participation on a pain or palliative-specific institutional committee and a resident-level committee
• Development or modification of a guideline/protocol/monograph/patient handout/clinical service/quality project for pain, palliative, hospice, or addiction related area (minimum of 2) 
• Completion of teaching P733 course at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy in the Winter Semester
• Attendance at Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellows Seminar Series (longitudinal) 
• Major Topic Discussions: the resident will present select formal (power point presentation) topics to preceptor groups
• Attendance and platform presentation/poster at a conference – can take place as ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting, Vizient Academic Group, or other conferences attended (e.g. ACCP, PAINWeek, AAHPM, ASAM) 

• Teaching certificate program (optional)
• Virtual activities offered through the Society of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacists

Approximately every 3rd weekend for no more than 15 weeks, 1 minor holiday and one major holiday block and 2 gap days 

Through the research and writing requirements of the program, the resident has the potential to produce at least two manuscripts suitable for peer-reviewed publication by the completion of the residency. There may be additional opportunities depending on resident interest. Presentation to the interdisciplinary palliative care research group will also be available. 

Residents receive a faculty appointment as Adjunct Clinical Instructor with the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy and have the option of completing a Teaching Certificate Program. Experience in rotation-related precepting and teaching of PharmD students and PGY1 residents is widely available. Opportunities to educate other disciplines (social work, medicine, nursing, etc.) may also be available depending on resident interest. 

• SMSHP Resident of the Year - Madison Irwin (2020-21)
• SMSHP Exemplar Resident CE - Madison Irwin (2020-21)
• Chief Resident - Madison Irwin (2020-21)
• James G. Stevenson Excellence in Pharmacy Practice - Kyle Quirk (2019-20), Madison Irwin (2020-21)
• ACCP Travel Award - Kyle Quirk (2019-20), Madison Irwin (2020-21)

• Quirk KC, Smith MA. Risk factors for the development of neuropsychiatric adverse-effects in ketamine treated pain. J Pain Pall Care Pharmacother. 2022; 36 (2): 88-94.
•  Irwin MN, Gunther W, Keefer P, Saul D, Singh SA, Wright J, Smith MA. Buprenorphine for chronic pain in a pediatric patient with sickle-cell disease. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2021; 62 (5): 1086-91.
• Wright J, Louttit E, Pasternak E, Irwin MN, Spruit JL. Pain management in pediatrics. Adv Fam Pract Nursing. 2021;3: 195-214.
• Irwin MN, VandenBerg A. Retracing our steps to understand ketamine in depression: A focused review of hypothesized mechanisms of action. Mental Health Clinician. 2021; 11 (3): 200-10.
• Irwin MN, Quirk K, Banner A, Hosseini K, Smith MA. Strategies for rotation between gabapentinoids in the inpatient setting. J Pain Pall Care Pharmacother. 2021; 35 (1):13-22.
• Irwin MN, Petersen K, Smith MA. Rapid buprenorphine induction for cancer pain in pregnancy. J Pall Med. 2020; In Press.
• Quirk KC, Marks A, Wright J, Smith MA. Sublingual buprenorphine for pediatric cancer pain: a case report and review of the literature. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2020; 60 (5): 1055-8.
• Quirk KC, Smith MA. Acetaminophen in patients receiving strong opioids for cancer pain. J Pain Palliat Care. 2020; 34 (4): 197-202.
• Smith MA, Quirk KC, Saul DC, Rodgers PE, Silveira MJ. Comparing methadone rotation to consensus opinion. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2020;59(1):116-120. 

• Julia Brown, PharmD
• Jillian DiClemente, PharmD
• Madison Irwin, PharmD, BCPS
• Alanna Lehman, PharmD, BCOP
• Thomas O'Neil, MD
• Amy Pasternak, PharmD
• Abbey Galligan, PharmD
• Michael A Smith, PharmD, FCCP, BCPS
• Amy VandenBerg, PharmD, BCPP
• Isabelle Zerfas, PharmD

Jillian DiClemente, PharmD
Program Director & Pain Management Clinical Pharmacist Specialist (ACT)
University of Michigan Health, Department of Pharmacy Services
1500 East Medical Center Drive, B2D301
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5008
[email protected] 

Abbey Galligan, PharmD
Program Coordinator & Pain Management Clinical Pharmacist Specialist (PPS)
University of Michigan Health, Department of Pharmacy Services
1500 East Medical Center Drive, B2D301
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5008
[email protected]