STRUCTURE

The Department of Radiation Oncology has five funded residency positions. The policy is to select only residents who have completed the PGY-1 year in an approved U.S. program.

Teaching and clinical programs are resident-oriented. The primary responsibility for the care of most radiation oncology patients at both Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and Jackson Memorial Hospital is assigned to residents, who are closely supervised by attending physicians. There are no clinical subdivisions, although each attending has a primary interest in and responsibility for various primary sites and clinical modalities. Exposure to a variety of tumor types and sites throughout training is believed to most closely simulate clinical practice. A low resident-to-faculty ratio permits close personal supervision in all phases of training. Additionally, opportunities for senior residents to teach junior residents are encouraged. As the residents’ knowledge and skills increase, they are assigned more complex cases and given more in-depth instruction for these patients.

The residents’ workday starts with a New Patient Conference at 8:00 am. This conference is conducted by faculty and involves the presentation of patient cases seen in the previous day’s clinics. Residents are expected to present pathology data, relevant imaging studies and laboratory data on the patients they examined, together with relevant literature. Attendings may select the most interesting patients for in-depth discussion later in the day.

In general, new patient and follow-up visits are seen daily along with treatment planning and simulations. Residents are assigned to the clinic area on a rotating basis, with one day regularly set aside for “on-treatment” patient examinations supervised by an attending physician.

A series of working and didactic conferences are also held. Residents are expected to attend these conferences unless excused by the chief resident or attending physician.