Job at a new cancer center

[avengers99]

I'm a 2nd-year fellow at a great institution entertaining the idea of working at a new university cancer center that will begin clinical operations the year before my joining. From my understanding, there are only two surg oncs, two med oncs, and a rad onc. No fellowship program (yet?), but there is an IM residency program and medical school. I anticipate a lack of academic mentorship at the new university cancer center may restrict my career g, growth but the idea of developing a quality academic cancer program in an underserved area seems like it will be extremely fulfilling. Other thoughts I had were to join a private group near the new university cancer center to establish myself locally before joining the university cancer center vs staying at my current institution (if offered a job) to grow my portfolio and academic experience before joining the new university cancer center. Any thoughts from the group would be appreciated.

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[bobow98]

Small group = tougher calls. That directly affects your ability to go give talks and seminars to grow your academic name. New cancer center = less clinical trial support, again making it hard for you to make a name for yourself. It's better to join something turnkey if you want to have growth potential.

Also, make sure you get RVU/performance bonus based on patient volume, because you'll be busy. If you take straight salary with "quality" bonus you will be shorted for sure.

 

[HemeOncHopeful19]

You'll need to tell us more about your career and life goals.

From MY perspective, why would you want to join an academic group with poor mentorship, presumably lower pay, and Q3 call and no fellow support to boot? But that might make sense for the right person I guess.

I interviewed at a place where the big local Megahospital was "building" a new practice site with two docs. When I pressed one person there for more information they eventually told me their docs were seeing ~10 patients per day because they were still "building" the practice. I knew that particular place already paid a low base and you would never hit your RVU targets with that volume.

 

[whoknows2012]

I'm a 2nd-year fellow at a great institution entertaining the idea of working at a new university cancer center that will begin clinical operations the year before my joining. From my understanding, there are only two surg oncs, two med oncs, and a rad onc. No fellowship program (yet?), but there is an IM residency program and medical school. I anticipate a lack of academic mentorship at the new university cancer center may restrict my career g, growth but the idea of developing a quality academic cancer program in an underserved area seems like it will be extremely fulfilling. Other thoughts I had were to join a private group near the new university cancer center to establish myself locally before joining the university cancer center vs staying at my current institution (if offered a job) to grow my portfolio and academic experience before joining the new university cancer center. Any thoughts from the group would be appreciated.

I don’t see a ton of benefit to to joining the new cancer center. I agree we need more info here. What would you expect the salary difference to be? How about the workload?

 

[dozitgetchahi]

You'll need to tell us more about your career and life goals.

From MY perspective, why would you want to join an academic group with poor mentorship, presumably lower pay, and Q3 call and no fellow support to boot? But that might make sense for the right person I guess.

I interviewed at a place where the big local Megahospital was "building" a new practice site with two docs. When I pressed one person there for more information they eventually told me their docs were seeing ~10 patients per day because they were still "building" the practice. I knew that particular place already paid a low base and you would never hit your RVU targets with that volume.

I’m rheumatology, but I walked away from interviewing at an academic job for the same reasons in the past. Plus, IMO you don’t want to be part of “establishing a new program” in any situation. Establishing a new fellowship = TONS of paperwork and other stuff that will take up a lot of time, and rest assured you won’t get compensated for doing any of it. Establishing a new clinic site = potentially years of not hitting RVU targets as you build the practice. Not to mention everything that already sucks about academic medicine.