One in five people in Australia and New Zealand will experience chronic – or persistent – pain at some stage in their lives.

We're responsible for setting the standards of clinical practice for anaesthesia and pain medicine in Australia and New Zealand. Our activities include issuing safety alerts; developing professional documents; and overseeing incident reporting.

Whether your interest is airway management, CTVP, or obstetric anaesthesia, there's an anaesthesia Special Interest Group (SIG) for you.

Your membership gives you access to a wide range of resources, opportunities, and services specially designed to support you professionally and personally throughout your career and into retirement.

We've produced a range of resources to support your professional practice, including a member-only photo library.

The pain medicine training program comprises a minimum of two years clinical experience directly related to pain medicine, which allows specialists and those completing a speciality training program to become a specialist pain medicine physician.

If you trained as an anaesthetist or specialist pain medicine physician overseas, we offer a number of pathways for you to practice in Australia or New Zealand as a specialist international medical graduate (SIMG).

Our anaesthesia training program is accredited by the Australian Medical Council (AMC) and the Medical Council of New Zealand (MCNZ). 

The Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and the Faculty of Pain Medicine have several pathways open to overseas trained anaesthetists and pain medicine specialists. Information on these pathways can be found below.

Participating in a continuing professional development (CPD) program is compulsory for specialist registration in Australia and New Zealand. Access to our world-leading CPD program is free for ANZCA and FPM fellows.