Interventional pain physician vs attending physician

The differences between interventional pain physicians and attending physicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both an interventional pain physician and an attending physician. Additionally, an interventional pain physician has an average salary of $216,432, which is higher than the $200,702 average annual salary of an attending physician.

The top three skills for an interventional pain physician include patient care, board certification and ICU. The most important skills for an attending physician are patients, primary care, and surgery.

Interventional pain physician vs attending physician overview

	Interventional Pain Physician	Attending Physician
Yearly salary	$216,432	$200,702
Hourly rate	$104.05	$96.49
Growth rate	7%	7%
Number of jobs	60,107	53,195
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 22%	Bachelor's Degree, 33%
Average age	48	48
Years of experience	4	4

What does an interventional pain physician do?

An interventional pain medicine physician is responsible for determining the cause of a patient's pain and prescribing treatment options. Unlike other pain management, interventional management emphasizes the relevance of providing a diagnosis to treat pain accordingly. This specialist uses all available sources to treat and eliminate the patient's causes of pain, through methods such as rehabilitation programs or physical therapy.

What does an attending physician do?

An Attending Physician typically supervises fellows, residents, medical students, and other practitioners. They are responsible for supervising each patient every day, reviewing treatment plans with residents, and supervising patient management documents.

Interventional pain physician vs attending physician salary

Interventional pain physicians and attending physicians have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Interventional Pain Physician	Attending Physician
Average salary	$216,432	$200,702
Salary range	Between $104,000 And $448,000	Between $125,000 And $321,000
Highest paying City	Duluth, MN	Miami, FL
Highest paying state	North Dakota	New Jersey
Best paying company	OSF HealthCare	Community Health Systems
Best paying industry	Health Care	Health Care

Differences between interventional pain physician and attending physician education

There are a few differences between an interventional pain physician and an attending physician in terms of educational background:

	Interventional Pain Physician	Attending Physician
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 22%	Bachelor's Degree, 33%
Most common major	Nursing	Medicine
Most common college	New York University	University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Interventional pain physician vs attending physician demographics

Here are the differences between interventional pain physicians' and attending physicians' demographics:

	Interventional Pain Physician	Attending Physician
Average age	48	48
Gender ratio	Male, 39.7% Female, 60.3%	Male, 36.5% Female, 63.5%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 5.2% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 9.7% Asian, 19.1% White, 61.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 5.2% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 9.6% Asian, 19.1% White, 61.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	13%	13%

Differences between interventional pain physician and attending physician duties and responsibilities

Interventional pain physician example responsibilities.

Manage catheters and dress wounds.
Admit outpatient clients for same day epidural injections, ablations, implant surgery.
Provide overall quality prenatal health care, gynecological services, patient triage, refer patients with complications, provide patient education service
Review patient medical records and assigns appropriate codes using ICD-9 and CPT coding to format all encounters.

Attending physician example responsibilities.

Manage neurological cancer research protocols: collected/organize data, assure compliance with protocol guidelines, manage study database and enroll patients.
Prepare patients for ultrasound guide injections and aspirations which includes draping patients, prepping medications and preparing sterile instruments.
Manage neurological cancer research protocols: collected/organize data, assure compliance with protocol guidelines, manage study database and enroll patients.
Monitor and manage patient medical records in compliance with HIPPA.

Interventional pain physician vs attending physician skills

Common interventional pain physician skills

Patient Care, 43%
Board Certification, 27%
ICU, 9%
EHR, 8%
IV, 6%
Epidural, 4%

Common attending physician skills

Patients, 35%
Primary Care, 8%
Surgery, 5%
Internal Medicine, 5%
BLS, 4%
Rehabilitation, 3%

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Interventional Pain Physician
Interventional Pain Physician vs Attending Physician

Updated January 8, 2025

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