Fellowship Program Curriculum

Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland’s Hematology and Oncology fellowship program adheres to the criterion of the American Board of Pediatrics for board certification and the American Council of Graduate Medical Education for training in pediatric subspecialties. The program includes additional core training curriculum which, as clinicians, we believe are essential to the clinical practice of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology.

Fellowship training includes:

• Clinical Care (direct and consultative)
• Didactic Core Curriculum (in related basic sciences)
• Continuing Care (responsibility for the continuing care of patients with malignant disease and chronic hematologic diseases)
• Medical Research

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First Year Fellows

The first year of the Hematology and Oncology Fellowship provides a broad clinical experience. The first months of the program serve to orient Fellows to the hospital, its programs and systems. Fellows then proceed directly into the core clinical curriculum.

First year fellows are also given the opportunity to develop their research hypothesis with a research mentor. This research will be the focus of the educational experience for the second and third years of the fellowship.

Orientation Lecture Series
First year fellows attend a daily noon lecture given by the clinical staff during the Outpatient Orientation month. Lectures cover basic topics in Hematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) and prepare the fellow for the first year and on-call duties. At the lecture, fellows have opportunities for discussion of patient care dilemmas and medical literature.

Clinical and Laboratory Rotations (Year 1)

Orientation/ Outpatient clinics/ Lecture series	4 weeks (1st month)
Inpatient Service:
BMT, High Acuity Oncology	12 weeks
Hematology & Oncology, Inpatient Consultation	12 weeks
Radiation Oncology (Alta Bates Medical Center)	4 weeks
Pathology (solid tumor pathology, bone marrow, blood banking, aspirate/biopsy, CSF cytology, flow cytometry)	4 weeks
Vacation	4 weeks
Formulation of Research Hypothesis/ Hematology Clinics	6 weeks
Palliative Care - End of Life Rotation	2 weeks
Continuity Clinic (minimum 36 per year)	1/2 day per week
Call every 5th night and 5th weekend (maximum every 4th night/4th weekend; 1-2 holidays per year)

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Second and Third Year Fellows

Clinical Fellows Research and Clinical Curriculum
Second year fellows attend an intensive core curriculum in the conduct of clinical research. During the second and third years of the program, each fellow creates and executes a research project under the guidance of a mentor. Fellows also present their research progress to the fellow’s Scholarship Oversight Committee for critique and recommendations.

Research opportunities include:

• Basic Science
• Clinical Projects
• Translational Projects
  

Fellows are encouraged to participate in research at Children’s Hospital Research Institute (CHORI) which has six Centers of Excellence devoted to pediatric research. These centers include the Center for Cancer Research and the Center for Sickle Cell and Thalassemia.

Bringing together the outstanding resources of over half a dozen different basic laboratories and the clinical oncology program, the Center for Cancer Research fosters invaluable collaboration between clinicians and basic scientists in order to provide the highest standard in translational research and care. Clinicians provide basic investigators with information regarding the most critical challenges in diagnosis, prognosis and treatment in pediatric oncology, while basic scientists can directly apply their research toward answering those challenges. Through such collaboration, the Center for Cancer Research also strives to translate new information regarding the causes and treatment of adult cancers into the unique setting of pediatric malignancies.

At the forefront of the national and international effort to address the needs of millions of children suffering from genetic disorders that leads to impaired red blood cells, the world-renowned Center for Sickle Cell and Thalassemia provides state of the art patient care and the opportunity to participate in national and international clinical studies. Actively supporting translational research in which basic science in the laboratory is directly applied to patient care, the center explores such topics as membrane lipid organization in sickle cell and thalassemia, novel approaches to the treatment of iron overload from blood transfusions or brain ischemia in sickle cell, with studies aimed at developing neuroprotective agents.

Opportunities exist for research fellows to participate in any of the centers with senior scientists providing direct mentorship.

Clinical Responsibilities

Second & Third Years

• Continuity Clinic - 1/2 day per week (36 clinics per year, minimum attendance )
• General Hematology Continuity Clinic - Monthly attendance
  
• Periodic attendance in multidisciplinary clinics is encouraged for up to 12 clinics per year
  
• Night and weekend call is every 5th to 6th night (maximum every 4th night) for the duration of the fellowship. There are 1-2 call holidays per year, per fellow.

Third Year

• Third year fellows serve one month on the inpatient services at the end of the academic year. In addition to inpatient consultation, senior fellows assume the role of a junior attending with full responsibility for the care of the Hematology, Oncology and BMT patients. Attending back-up and supervision is provided. This month reinforces the clinical experience and development of skills necessary to transition to independence in the clinical management of complex Hematology, Oncology and BMT patients.
  
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