Onco-Hospitalist Fellowship

Applicants must be a graduate of a U.S. medical school with a degree of M.D. or equivalent. The fellowship candidate must have successfully completed an internship and residency in internal medicine and must also be eligible for a Texas medical license.

Marketing for this position begins in October of each year for the following year’s candidate. Each candidate is required to send the following:

• Curriculum vitae
• 3 current recommendation letters written in support of this fellowship program
• A personal statement
• Copy of USMLE score
• Visa status
  

This information is reviewed by the program director and candidates are contacted for Skype or telephone for interviews.

All fellows will be subject to the same detailed quality assurance oversight and quality improvement strategies required of all faculty within the Hospital Medicine department. This will assure compliance with all state and federal regulations that assure patient safety and confidentiality. Fellows will be expected to attend QA sessions at the departmental meetings where specific issues regarding inpatients, new patients, and consults are discussed by the Hospital Medicine department team. In addition to this, the fellow will be required to be actively involved in either a quality assurance or quality improvement project within the Hospital Medicine department during the first (and optional second) fellowship year.

All fellows will benefit from a comprehensive mentoring approach during their training. A research mentor will be assigned to the fellow at the beginning of the first year and will work closely with the fellow throughout the year to complete a research project. The mentor will meet with the fellow to create a personalized plan of action to achieve his/her research goals. They will meet at least once a quarter to review the fellow’s progress in achieving his/her goals and to ensure experiential training objectives are met. Should the fellow enter the second optional year of fellowship, the fellow will either expand his/her work with the same mentor or choose another mentor for further work in another area. A designated administrative assistant will provide general administrative support for the fellow.

At the end of the first year of training, the fellow is expected to be knowledgeable about appropriate diagnostic, therapeutic, and palliative approaches to the treatment of cancer patients who are admitted to the inpatient hospitalist service at MD Anderson. At the end of an optional second year of training, the fellow is expected to be competent to assume independent investigations in a clinically-oriented research program.

In order to obtain a certification of training, the fellow must fulfill the following requirements:

• Successfully meet objectives of the Oncologic Internal Medicine Fellowship program
• Receive an overall evaluation score of competent or above
• Attend didactic lectures and conferences as described in the program manual
• Provide documentation of research project (to be submitted at the end of the year)

During each year of training, fellows are evaluated a minimum of four times. At least two clinical or research mentors will be asked to evaluate the fellow on his/her competencies within the program during each year of training. Additionally, the program director will evaluate the fellow’s progress and share the results of their performance evaluations to date four times per year. Trainees having less than a satisfactory review will be contacted by the program director to discuss the evaluation and remedial plan of action, if necessary.

During clinical rotations, fellows will have their clinic skills and decision-making abilities reviewed by the supervising attending. Informal criticism or recommendation will be relayed to the program director as needed. This information will be compiled and incorporated into the quarterly evaluations of the fellows.

Trainees will be provided a form to evaluate the program and faculty and make recommendations that may lead to improvements in the training and research experience.

Compensation/stipends will be based on institutional standards and the number of years of postgraduate training the fellow has received.