Ask and ye shall receive...
Fox Chase Cancer Center
Interview day: Well-structured interview day, starting with dinner w/ the residents the night before. FCCC has adopted sort of a modified panel approach, which I thought worked extremely well. Each interview consists of 2 faculty, and you. Thus, you get a chance to meet everyone in the department, but you dont have to suffer through a 14 interview gauntlet (heres looking at you Stanford). Two interviewers is very manageable, and didnt have the intimidation factor of the MDACC-style one-shot panel interview.
PD/Chair: The PD here is one who really stood out to me as a resident advocate; resident education really seems to come first. PD emphasized how flexible they are very happy to make changes if theyre reasonable. One resident was considering using the PGY4 research year to do an MBA, which was supposedly going to fly, before she ultimately decided against it.
The interim chair, Horwitz, also came across as very friendly and laid-back we spent the majority of the interview talking about the NFL playoff race and the Phillies. On topic, he further emphasized the collegial environment of the department, and reiterated his commitment to resident research time. (FWIW, the current R4s are on a research year promised by Pollack, but honored by Horwitz). Chair is a young guy, focused on prostate, and VP of brachy society,.
Location: FCCC is located kind of on the northern outskirts of Philly. Cost of living seems to be pretty reasonable One resident reported buying a 4 bedroom house, 10 minutes from work, and several of the single types live in Center City Philadelphia, and report paying ~800s for 2 bedroom apts downtown.
Research: Very-well supported here, with a dedicated year available. Residents are very productive, lots of ASTRO work. One of the residents, Peter Morgan, just published that paper on productivity index, which I heard about 4-5 times FCCC residents rank 3rd FWIW
Two MD/PhD R4s doing a year in the lab, working with the inventors of Y2H and tamoxifen, respectively. One opined that he was deciding between MSK and FCCC, and came here b/c of their commitment to the residents ability to do research. The Holman pathway would be supported here neither of the two current R4s ended up pursuing it, but both the PD and chair would ok it. Somewhat incongruously, you do seem take call during your research year, but given that its q8 weeks and pretty light, not such a big deal. Only drawback here is that, while FCCC has big-time researchers (2 Nobel Laureates on faculty, plus Knudson), FCCC is a smaller institution overall so there may be fewer options if you have a specific bench interest.
Residents: A very friendly group, with what seems to be a great culture of supporting each other, e.g. one resident who lives close by will occasionally pop in on non-call weekends to cover a 20 minute treat, sparing the Center City folks from a long round-trip. Residents were very happy with the departments close-knit culture. Lots of group social events (e.g. residents vs. attendings softball games, journal club / wii playing at the PDs house. They say that the attendings will pimp the crap out of you, but do so respectfully, with education in mind, and will show up later that afternoon having pulled the article you need to read.
Workload: Sounds like most residents work 8-5, with exceptions for somewhat busier services like ENT. Call is q8-9 weeks, and sounds very light essentially, the call person stays until the machines stop running (~7PM), but it sounds like another resident will generally make sure to be in by 7, so call ends up being 8-7 most weekdays. Weekends are typically very light (~3 calls), particularly since there is no attached EC for people to come into. Scut is purportedly minimal to non-existent. Residents report that the nursing/support staff is particularly excellent with respect to call, triaging phone contacts so that they dont get called on things that are non-emergent, but were indiscriminately put through by the page operator. Also, all the computer stuff is available by remote access: including treatment planning, dictation editing, and online journals.
Equipment: Im not usually one to obsess over who has which version of what machine, but for some reason, I wrote it down here: Department is undergoing its 2nd remodeling in less than a decade. A new building is going up adjacent, scheduled to open July 2009, and department will expand/relocate from basement + first floor of current building to entire basement of both. Will have 7 LINACS, up from 6, with an empty vault in reserve. All the machines are being replaced, so the oldest machines in the new building will be from 2005. Cyberknife coming to satellite facility which is being built and set to open next year, no current plans for residents to go there, but if there proves to be some educational value (ie, perhaps increased CNS service), they may offer that option. . Trilogy, CT on rails, rapidarc, on board CT, calypso, etc, with the exception of protons. CT and MR sim, dedicated PET/CT sim on the way.
Didactics: Wednesday afternoon is lectures 3-6: Physics, Radbio, clinical lecture. Conferences mornings at 8 AM. They take this protected time very seriously. Residents leave services at 2:55, no questions asked, on Wednesdays, and the nurses know not to page residents during the 8 AM hour. 2 oral boards examiners among the faculty, including the PD, so mock oral boards hew reasonably close to the real thing. Written in-service every year as self-assessment tool. The PD has actually developed a syllabus of sorts for his rotation he gives the residents a binder full of papers at the beginning of the rotation, and goes through 1 topic a week during a ~1 hour session on his academic day. (Residents take academic days the same time as their attendings).
Service structure / coverage: Clinical rotations are 3 months, covering one attending only. PGY4 year is the chief year, freeing the PGY5s to interview for jobs etc. No Peds at FCCC residents do a 1 month rotation at CHOP across town. Otherwise, good volume, 140 patients on treatment at any given time. Claim to do a good amount of brachy for GYN/GU. Can do a month or two at Temple if you want to see horrendomas and other locally advanced disease.
Random details: Tons of perks here! Free food 3 meals a day in the adjacent hospital cafeteria. Food was a recurring theme, with ample free food also around at various birthday parties, conferences, etc. Day care is reported to be awesome, subsidized by FCCC. Nationally certified program, for whatever thats worth, subsidized based on salary. One resident reported paying $150 a week for two kids. Day care is claimed to open early / close late as needed for your work schedule as a FCCC employee. Residents get TONS of time to travel / vacation. R2s have to stay behind to cover clinics, but everyone else goes to ASTRO as long as they have even submitted an abstract. Everyone is sent to at least one other meeting a year, and residents average 2-3. $600 per year for books/educational expenses, half of which can be spent towards annual payment towards oral boards fees. All the residents get 3 major textbooks upon arrival.
Vacation is 20 days per year, which is on top of 6-8 major holidays (Labor Day, July 4, Christmas, etc). When the department is closed for days like this year, 12/26, Christmas on a Thursday, residents get a bonus day off.
OVERALL: All in all a fantastic place, which ended up pretty high on my list. Close-knit program in a dedicated cancer center with all the toys, providing rigorous clinical training with a minimum of scut, great travel and benefits, and very lifestyle friendly (8-5, with ample remote access). Residents are genuinely supported by the PD and chair, and attendings are used to being without resident coverage to run their services. Residents come out extremely well-published and well-networked. A year of protected research is no problem, and Holman would be supported. Arguably less name recognition, although the department certainly seems well plugged into ASTRO/RTOG/ECOG, etc. Requisite knock for the inherent uncertainty of the chair situation, and possibly light on zebras and horrendomas.