The 2 Year Oncology Fellowship

[JasonLChertoff]

What if I have little interest in heme, and just want to do the 2 year med onc fellowship? Are there any disadvantages to this? Thank you.

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[gutonc]

What if I have little interest in heme, and just want to do the 2 year med onc fellowship? Are there any disadvantages to this? Thank you.

Yes and no. Practically speaking, outside of MDACC and MSKCC, the 2y Onc only programs are hard to come by. This is mostly a numbers game...somebody has to move the meat and you can bet your sweet ass it's not going to be the attendings. So most programs want to get the most work out of their fellows. Many Onc only fellowships will also require you to do an extra year of research so you don't actually get any less time in training.

As to how it works out in practice, I am Onc only trained (was planning a research career...s*** happened and I'm in a semi-academic general community practice now) and see about 30% heme (mostly benign) in my practice. You'll find that's a pretty good rule of thumb (20-35% heme) for PP and other non-powerhouse academic gigs. That's the bad news. The good news is that the vast majority of outpatient heme referrals are total bulls*** that even a modestly competent PA or NP could handle if given the time. But since the PCPs are supposed to manage 7 chronic and 4 acute issues in every 15 minute visit, they turf a certain amount. About 50% of my heme consults are "72M with microcytic anemia and melena, no h/o colo" and get referred to me and GI at the same time. Since we see all new consults in 2 business days or less, they inevitably get in to see me before they get their colo (which inevitably identifies a cancer, and they wind up being my adjuvant chemo patients). Of the remaining 50%, another half are for duration of AC for DVT/PE. Again...I've got the guidelines memorized, these patients are basically free money, spend 15 minutes in the room with them, bill a Level 4, boom.

After my first year in practice, I've only referred 1 heme patient out to the University and that was for ATG therapy which my hospital won't do.

Do I wish I'd done more heme in my training? Kind of. Do I feel unprepared to deal with most of my heme patients? No.

BUT...the vast majority of PP job listings I come across ask for BC/BE in Heme AND Onc. So you might be limiting your future employment options a little bit without the heme training, but probably not all that much.

 

[Newyork7999]

Any news about east tennessee state university, is it good in academics ?

 

[qv3755]

Any news about east tennessee state university, is it good in academics ?

it's a new program. It wasn't even on the map a few years ago.. in your case, i would just go.. what do you have to loose??

 

[argentina09]

I am going too//;P

 

[JasonLChertoff]

Are there really only 11 of these in the country? Are there any outside of what is posted on FREIDA?

 

[qv3755]

Are there really only 11 of these in the country? Are there any outside of what is posted on FREIDA?

not that i know of.