Pediatric Oncology - Lifestyle / Career path

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Hello,

I was curious if a pediatric hem/onc fellow /attending could answer a few questions of mine. What is the typical lifestyle of a pediatric oncologist? How often are you on call? How much research is required? Do you need to perform research for ~ 50% of your career? If not, then what are the options?

I spoke with a pediatric oncologist and it seemed like research was MOST of your career. He only saw patients once a week, and that was during his clinical months. I inquired about clinical research / teaching and he made it clear that those positions are very difficult to land in pediatric oncology.

Can anybody comment on these questions? Thank you in advance!

Wanting to bump this, any attendings out there care to comment? Thanks!

Along these lines, I had a couple questions for anyone who has any experience. I get the impression that this a largely academic field. By this I mean you get paid to do research and have a clinical practice on the side. Also, that opportunities outside of academic centers are hard to come by. Are these accurate thoughts? The reason I ask is I am interested in heme onc (also PICU, but for different reasons) but have no interest in a predominately research oriented career.

Thanks in advance.

While I am sure it varies the peds hem/onc doctors I researched with were doing 60-70% of their time in research. Typically the fellowship is 1 year clinical with 2 years of predominately research. They were at an academic center. I don't really know much else as I am still in med school but very convinced it's the field I want to go in and was surprised by how much I enjoyed researching even when I wasn't sure if it was my thing (hated undergrad labs).

I'm also interested in peds heme/onc and follow "Dr. David's Blog". He's a pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Johns Hopkins. Here's a post where he describes a typical day:
http://doctordavidsblog.blogspot.com...y-in-life.html

Edit: He's an MD/PhD so he probably does more research than average. From what I can tell it really varies. Personally I am more interested in clinical research but of course that might change.

I've stayed out of this because I was hoping a real pediatric heme/onc doc would respond, but alas, they're busy in the lab 24/7

There is no doubt that heme/onc is one of the most academic oriented specialties, along with renal and ID and perhaps endo in pediatrics. However, the 2006 workforce statement suggested that as many as 10-30% of pedi heme/onc fellows planned on non-academic practice.

From what I've seen, excluding the 4 or 5 largest pedi heme/onc centers in the US, there is plenty of work and lots of folks doing primarily clinical care with a touch of clinical research. Remember that you have to do a research project during fellowship (like all pedi specialties), but even then, I've known lots of heme/onc fellows to do things like survivor clinic outcomes, etc, not just basic science.

There is no reason not to consider pedi heme/onc even if you want to primarily do clinical medicine, although matching at the largest few programs will probably be more difficult if you're honest about your intent.

Now, lets hope a real pedi heme/onc doc finds this thread.

Originally Posted by oldbearprofessor

I've stayed out of this because I was hoping a real pediatric heme/onc doc would respond, but alas, they're busy in the lab 24/7

There is no doubt that heme/onc is one of the most academic oriented specialties, along with renal and ID and perhaps endo in pediatrics. However, the 2006 workforce statement suggested that as many as 10-30% of pedi heme/onc fellows planned on non-academic practice.

From what I've seen, excluding the 4 or 5 largest pedi heme/onc centers in the US, there is plenty of work and lots of folks doing primarily clinical care with a touch of clinical research. Remember that you have to do a research project during fellowship (like all pedi specialties), but even then, I've known lots of heme/onc fellows to do things like survivor clinic outcomes, etc, not just basic science.

There is no reason not to consider pedi heme/onc even if you want to primarily do clinical medicine, although matching at the largest few programs will probably be more difficult if you're honest about your intent.

Now, lets hope a real pedi heme/onc doc finds this thread.

Thanks OBP! Which specialties would you say are probably the least academic oriented? Is it a good rule of thumb that, if the physician works primarily in an inpatient setting, they will be involved with research (and vice versa -- outpatient docs are less likely to be)? Or is that not the case? Any specialties that lack significant amounts of research would be good to hear about, but it'd be awesome if you could elaborate on the pedi sub-specialties that aren't academic in nature (:

Thank you so much!

Originally Posted by sunflower18

Thanks OBP! Which specialties would you say are probably the least academic oriented? Is it a good rule of thumb that, if the physician works primarily in an inpatient setting, they will be involved with research (and vice versa -- outpatient docs are less likely to be)? Or is that not the case? Any specialties that lack significant amounts of research would be good to hear about, but it'd be awesome if you could elaborate on the pedi sub-specialties that aren't academic in nature (:

Thank you so much!

No, inpatient can have plenty of private practice opportunities. I don't know the percents, they are probably published by the AAP in its workforce statements (don't ask me to find them ), but neonatology, cardiology, GI, and Allergy and Immunology would come to mind as having the highest percent in private practice among those focusing on pediatrics. Others are welcome to suggest other areas. All areas have private practice although it is very limited in some (ID).

Bumping .... curious if any Ped Heme / Onc can offer further insight on the following:

1. What are the job opportunities? Can you "pick" a city to live in .... or are the options very limited?

2. Do most jobs require extensive research / lab time?

3. What is the average salaries in larger cities (NYC, Seattle, SF)

Thank you in advance!

Originally Posted by LIDO

Bumping .... curious if any Ped Heme / Onc can offer further insight on the following:

1. What are the job opportunities? Can you "pick" a city to live in .... or are the options very limited?

2. Do most jobs require extensive research / lab time?

3. What is the average salaries in larger cities (NYC, Seattle, SF)

Thank you in advance!

I don't know all your answers- I can say that on #1 that from what I have been told the bigger programs are harder to stay at (I believe about 25% of fellows stayed where I did research)- my mentor said it wasn't a who's smartest thing per say it had more to do with what niche they needed to fill (brain, BMT, hematology, leuk, solid, etc) if any. In smaller cities the hem/onc person does all areas more often vs at a large center where most have a smaller area they focus on.

2. Usually larger cities want more research vs smaller places. My mentors were 60% or more research at big center while in my medium town there are 2 hem/onc docs and they maybe put out 1-2 case reports a year. They didn't really have anything for me when I requested any type of research. Also due to little volume one is also the PD here and has time for both.