Residency Program Curriculum
Our residency program offers structured and comprehensive training curriculums.
Sidebar
Medical Student Rotation
The Department of Radiation Oncology welcomes 3rd and 4th year medical students for visiting rotations. Each rotation consists of a 4-week block that adheres to the University of Louisville rotation schedule. During this rotation, the medical student will be assigned to one faculty each day with whom they will see patients together in clinic. The medical student will be expected to work-up patients, perform physical exams independently, and present the case to the faculty. The student will also document fully the history, physical exam, and treatment plan for each case. The students will also be exposed to treatment planning, simulations, and treatment deliveries throughout the rotation while working with clinical faculty, as well as spend time with the medical physics and dosimetry departments. Students will be expected to give a 30 minute presentation at the end of the rotation for the department on a topic of their choosing.
Curriculum and Resident Education
In the first two months of residency, PGY-2 residents complete an introductory physics course. PGY-2 residents also complete a Physics and Dosimetry curriculum during the year as required by the ABR. PGY-3, 4 and 5 residents are given 1-3 months of research/elective time per year based on seniority. This time can be used to rotate through other specialties (eg radiology, pathology, medical oncology, surgical oncology, etc), conduct research and/or pursue away rotations. A partnership has been established with the University of Cincinnati for residents to rotate through the UC Proton Center during their PGY-4 or PGY-5 years.
Resident didactic sessions are held twice weekly. The core curriculum is systems based and in line with the ABR/ASTRO curriculum requirements. ASTRO conference and review course multimedia are supplemented by attending lectures and resident-driven didactic presentations. Board review questions are integrated into the weekly curriculum to provide for a more active learning experience. Topics include site-specific overviews, pertinent literature review and review of in-service questions. The core curriculum is supplemented by weekly grand rounds lectures, monthly journal clubs and quarterly morbidity and mortality conferences. Bi-weekly case conferences are conducted on the monthly anatomic subsite of focus to further discuss work-up and management of patients to prepare residents for oral boards.
Based on recommendations and requirements from ABR, ASTRO and NRC, the physics class for medical residents in radiation oncology consists of three parts. Every year, PGY 2 residents take part 1, which consists of a physics boot camp. This boot camp consists of approximately 13 twice-weekly one hour classes and runs through July and August. After the boot camp class is completed, all residents take either part 2 or part 3 classes. Parts 2 and 3 of the curriculum are alternated on a yearly basis and offer a more fundamental and advanced physics curriculum respectively. This runs from September to June. During these sessions, class is held once weekly for 1.5 hours at a time.
The Radiation Biology course is taught by University faculty. This course is offered to PGY-2, 3 and 4 residents. This course is taught in conjunction with the Hall textbook. The radiobiology course coincides with the physics boot camp.