Hematology Oncology Fellowship-
Clinical Training & Education

Fellows spend their clinical time between inpatient and outpatient services at Cincinnati Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati Medical Center with some outpatient rotations at the West Chester Hospital Outpatient Building.  At the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, outpatient clinics are conducted at the Barrett Cancer Center.  Research is conducted mainly in the labs at the Vontz Center.

Continuity clinics are essential in the education of any sub-specialists.  At the Cincinnati VA, fellows have the opportunity to monitor a panel of patients for the duration their three years. Fellows take ownership of these patients and this is regularly voted a favorite rotation from all fellows. A second continuity clinic is in place at the Barrett Cancer Center, where fellows spend six-months at a time in one clinical sub-specialty.  This is also a very important clinic to follow the course of a disease for a six-month period.

Inpatient exposure includes rotations through the consult service at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and at the Cincinnati VA.  Fellows also rotate through the solid tumor inpatient service and the hematological malignancies/bone marrow transplant rotation.

Fellows have 2 main outpatient rotations in addition to their continuity clinics.  The core clinic rotation is a rotation where fellows gain experience in the core areas of hematology oncology. This rotation takes place at the Barrett Cancer Center and covers topics such as:  breast oncology, gastrointestinal malignancies, hematological malignancies, thoracic malignancies, head and neck malignancies and benign hematology.   An outpatient elective is called ILR (Individualized Learning Rotation). This provides the fellow with the independence to tailor their experience and to allow for additional exposure to the field of their choice. In example, a fellow may choose to do a month of breast oncology or work in the lab.

In the first 18 months of the fellows training (Phase 1) all fellows complete the fellowship training as described above.  In the second 18 months (Phase 2), the fellows can choose the experience of their choice.  For instance, a fellow interested in bench research may choose to be in the lab all the time (except for their VA continuity clinic) or a fellow may choose to be in the outpatient clinics to prepare for a clinical career in community practice.