The Hematology/Oncology Fellowship curriculum includes rotations research and various clinical settings.
1st year rotation: 2 months
2nd year rotation: 1 month
3rd year rotation: --
1st year rotation: 1 month
2nd year rotation: 2 months
3rd year rotation: --
The fellows get a 6 month experience performing consultations for both hematology and medical oncology patients (3 months each). Given we are a tertiary care center and a referral hospital for the AHN network, the fellows are exposed to a wide variety of simple and complex cases in both fields.
Every Thursday the oncology consult fellow presents interesting and challenging cases seen during the week to the fellows and faculty where management of these cases is discussed at length.
At the end of every month, the hematology consult fellow presents the interesting cases of the month and a dedicated didactic topic is pre assigned to them for the month.
1st year rotation: 2 months
2nd year rotation: 1 month
3rd year rotation: --
The inpatient hematology/oncology service is covered by the hematology/oncology fellow, APP and the internal medicine resident. Patients are divided between the APP and residents, after they are capped overflow patients are seen by the fellow.
The hematology/oncology fellow is responsible for assigning patients to students, APP and internal medicine residents rotating through the inpatient services. Patients are evaluated by them and presented to the hematology/oncology fellow for supervisory and teaching activities. The hematology/oncology fellow is also responsible for assigning cases for additional reading and discussion by the internal medicine resident in weekly Hematology/Oncology conferences.
1st year rotations: 3 months
2nd year rotations: 1 month
3rd year rotations: --
The fellow for the Hematology and Cellular Therapy service is expected to function in the role of a junior attending by assisting the residents and APPs on service by reviewing the prior history, peripheral blood smears, slides, pathology reports, bone marrows, X-rays, or scans of patients on the service and help with admissions if needed. Rounds are conducted by the attending physician.
Our fellows have a unique opportunity to be exposed to a variety of transplants and their related complications, such as infections, veno-occlusive disease of the liver, graft-versus-host disease, and interstitial pneumonia. Fellows have hands-on experience taking care of patients receiving novel treatments such as CAR T-cell therapy.
Fellows are expected to present interesting and challenging cases every Tuesday morning at the transplant meeting with the faculty and attend hematopathology conference every other Wednesday.
1st year rotations: Every Thursday
2nd year rotations: Every Thursday
3rd year rotations: Every Thursday
This is a half day clinic every Thursday when each fellow has their own pool of
patients assigned to them. The fellow is the patient’s primary oncologist and
they staff the patient with a disease site specific attending in order to get
the best learning experience. The fellows are responsible for seeing the
patient, creating a treatment plan, reviewing labs in their in-baskets and
effectively working as fully functional oncologists under supervision. The
fellows learn to work as a team with the nurses, APP’s and schedulers.
They are also expected to present their new cases and treatment plan prior to their clinic day at our clinic case conference in the presence of the program faculty. Every year this has consistently been voted by our fellows as the best experience of our fellowship program.
1st year rotations: --
2nd year rotations: --
3rd year rotations: Once a month
This is a continuity clinic where our third year fellows rotate once a month at Western Pennsylvania Hospital where they take care of a panel of patients with malignant hematological diagnosis. They are able to obtain longitudinal learning as an outpatient management of these conditions and follow the patient’s disease course. The plan is to continue to expand this clinic and make it more frequent to continue to enhance the fellows learning experience.
1st year rotations: 2 weeks
2nd year rotations: --
3rd year rotations: --
During this rotation the hematology/oncology fellow develops increased experience and skills in the diagnosis of patients with bleeding disorders and hypercoagulability (thrombophilia). The fellow spends time in the Hemostasis and Thrombosis laboratory where the fellow learns about and performs certain laboratory tests including platelet counts, prothrombin times, activated partial thromboplastin times, DRVVT etc.
1st year rotations: 1 month
2nd year rotations: --
3rd year rotations: --
During this rotation the fellow is expected to learn the fundamentals of hematopathology. The fellow reviews all bone marrows submitted during this rotation with a hematopathologist. The attending assures that the fellow develops skills in evaluating slides pathologically and the fellow is capable of achieving a diagnosis.
1st year rotations: 1 month
2nd year rotations: --
3rd year rotations: --
The fellows attend a series of lectures and laboratory exercises designed to provide a better understanding of blood compatibility, cross-matching and transfusion medicine. This includes didactic and practical experience and a period of time in the laboratory. The fellow reads transfusion texts and reviews any transfusion problems that are seen throughout the hospital during this rotation. The fellow evaluates transfusion reactions and performs appropriate laboratory tests to ascertain the type of reaction.
The attending pathologists present a series of lectures and supervise a wet laboratory in which the fellow performs typing and cross-matching as well as antibody identification. The attending also provides an opportunity for the fellow to become familiar with blood donation techniques and screening tests to prevent any transmissible diseases. The attending pathol
