Educational Sessions
Faculty Lecture Series
Attending physicians will present a series of lectures addressing fundamental topics in clinical radiation oncology. These lectures will address etiology, epidemiology and natural history, patient evaluation and staging, overall treatment paradigms and multidisciplinary management, survivorship, and the role of radiation therapy in treatment. They will also cover specific techniques of radiotherapy applicable to each stage of disease, including treatment volume, dose and fractionation, technical aspects of setup and beam configuration, use of special modalities (such as brachytherapy or total skin electron beam therapy), normal tissue considerations and constraints, an d management of acute and late toxicities.
New Patient Rounds
New patient rounds occur weekly on Tuesday Mornings. Patients are presented by attending physicians, residents and radiation therapy students. Residents will be expected to present any new patient that has started treatment within the past week. Presentations should include the following: 1) a concise presentation of the patient’s history, including any relevant clinical, radiographic and/or pathological findings 2) the radiation therapy plan, including prescription, dose, fractionation and any planned boosts 3) any associated treatment plans e.g. concurrent chemotherapy or planned surgeries and 4) rationale for any treatment plans which are outside the generally accepted standard of care.
Tumor Boards
Beyond the clinical responsibilities, residents have an obligation to learn through attending conferences within the department and throughout the Cancer Center, as well as at national conferences, through interaction with fellow residents and faculty, and by teaching medical students. Several important teaching courses, lecture series, seminars, tumor boards, and conferences occur on a weekly basis. Some are intradepartmental whereas others are interdepartmental to complement the interdisciplinary nature of our program. In compliance with ACGME guidelines, attendance at multidisciplinary tumor boards and conferences is tracked to document completion of the requisite training for medical oncology, oncologic pathology, and diagnostic imaging. Residents are expected to attend all tumor boards and conferences with their assigned attending based on rotation. Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Surgery, Radiology and Pathology are represented in each of these conferences.
Journal Club
Analysis of Literature
The Journal Club (Clinical, Biology, or Physics) occurs once a month. Mentors can include: Faculty, Physics faculty, Biology faculty (depending on nature of session). They are present with all residents. (all others welcome). Emphasis is on background in the area, dissection and analysis of the paper. The will be residents are paired with a faculty mentors who will help them choose papers in each topic (clinical, biology, physics). The resident will present the paper, paying particular attention to background/context, data and analysis, and whether the results support the conclusions. Strengths and weaknesses of each paper are to be presented. Residents will also receive electronic journal articles through e-mails, reviewed by the program director or attending from selected radiation oncology journals. In addition, residents will also be expected to attend Medical Oncology’s journal club at the digression of the Program Direction.
Morbidity and Mortality/Quality Improvement Rounds
All faculty are encouraged to be present and all residents are required to be present. 1-2 cases are presented by a resident, mentored by a faculty member that had that morbidity/mortality issue. A review of all treatment complications will be discussed. A detailed presentation by a resident on a rotational basis will be done. A discussion concerning the complications, the cause, the results, and possible avoidance will be discussed by the residents and staff. This will also include cases which have failed treatment, with an attempt to clarify the cause of failure.
Case-based Presentations
Residents will be expected to prepare a case based presentation on a specific topic of clinical relevance to their current rotation on a monthly basis. Audience will be other residents and attendings (required participation) as well as nurses, therapy students, physicists, and therapists (optional participation). The presentation should be completed in 45 minutes or less, to provide opportunity for discussion of the above questions among faculty and residents. A total of one hour will be allotted for this activity.
System for Process Event Acknowledgment (SPEAK) Rounds
As we care for patients, we follow clinical workflows. Sometimes, deviations from the steps in these workflows can cause issues ranging from incorrect documentation to patient mistreatments. These process events can be entered into our software called SPEAK (System for Process Event Acknowledgment) immediately after they occur. While the needs of the patient affected by the event are addressed at the time the event occurs, the systems and processes which lead to the event need to be analyzed. This happens during SPEAK rounds. A resolution for the event is suggested, and further analysis is performed to improve the processes to reduce the probability that the event would occur again. Residents will be given an event to champion. They will present the event, their analysis of the event, and the steps they have taken to mitigate the risks associated with the event. The resident will be evaluated (using a form with scoring criteria) by staff (physicists and/or radiation oncologists) present at the event.