Single boarded medical oncology in US practice option

[icecoo]

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Hi, I'm a Canada trained medical oncologist. Came down to US for fellowship and stayed to practice in academic setting treating melanoma until 1.5 years ago when I had to take a break from practice to be a caretaker for family and worked on oncology clinical trial design (non-clinical) during the gap. I'm resuming practice as a volunteer clinical faculty at the same university doing some inpatient heme/onc ward work soon. I'm wondering what are the options to return to practice considering I'm single-boarded in medical oncology, having only practiced in academic setting specialized in treating a rare cancer, and also have a gap to address.

I'm going to see if the place I previously practice is hiring first. But otherwise, are there locum works in melanoma/solid tumor oncology only to bridge the gap? Can I work in the community being only trained in med onc? Thank you for any advice that you may have!

 

[ONC2023]

Hey - I can speak a bit to this.

I am med onc boarded only, and I’m only comfortable with solid tumor - and within solid tumor, I’m only comfortable with some solid tumors.

I found a community job with only minimal trouble last year. However, I was very geographically flexible, which helped a lot.

Being melanoma only is a bit more restrictive than I was - if you’re willing to see a few more solid tumor types, it might open up quite a few more positions.

 

[HemeOncHopeful19]

Hey - I can speak a bit to this.

I am med onc boarded only, and I’m only comfortable with solid tumor - and within solid tumor, I’m only comfortable with some solid tumors.

I found a community job with only minimal trouble last year. However, I was very geographically flexible, which helped a lot.

Being melanoma only is a bit more restrictive than I was - if you’re willing to see a few more solid tumor types, it might open up quite a few more positions.

How do you take call?

 

[gutonc]

The single board thing is mostly irrelevant. I'm single boarded (onc) and have been practicing in the community my entire career. For the first 12 years I was in an academ-ish setting that allowed me to mostly focus on a few organ systems (GI, thoracic, breast, melanoma) but I still saw whatever came my way when the other person who saw most of that (GU, heme, brain, HN) wasn't available. 2 years ago I moved to a rural CAH position where I'm solo practice and the only non-locums oncologist within a large catchment area (60 miles in one direction, 120-200 miles in every other direction to the next nearest hem/onc). I see literally everything including a large amount of classical heme. So that part is "easy". Just a lot of self-directed learning.

You have to address both a practice gap and a knowledge gap if you're going to practice in any setting, especially a more generalist one.

There are definitely melanoma-only, or melanoma mostly jobs out there in large community based groups (primarily hospital employed), but you don't necessarily have to limit yourself to that with some work upfront.

 

[flowers]

• Yes, you can work in some community settings with being Med Onc only. While melanoma is specialized, I think you could position yourself as having relevant experience for a variety of solid tumors. You have broad familiarity with immunotherapy, cytotoxics and targeted therapy and managing the toxicities of those therapies. I see oncology as moving away from "primary site" to "primary driver mutation" treatment planning and delivery.
• The longer the gap, the harder it will be to get credentialed, so I'd take a job in clinical oncology sooner rather than later. Our hospital requires a re-entry pan with a supervising physician if there is a lapse in clinical practice. There will always be a re-entry plan needed if it has been >2 years. Different hospitals may have different requirements. Volunteering or locums is ok, but a paid full-time job will be better. The VA comes to mind as having some lower barriers to entry (ie accept any state license). After you have worked somewhere full-time for a year, the gap won't impact your credentialing so you'd be free to move around.