Our program integrates hands-on clinical care, didactic teaching, academic conferences, and many other educational resources as pedagogic tools across the spectrum of cancer care. Together these offer the resident a well-rounded, integrated educational foundation.
Conferences
Structured intradepartmental weekly and monthly conferences and brown-bag lunches as well as a variety of interdepartmental teaching rounds and site-specific tumor boards at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center provide a wealth of educational experiences.
Residents are expected to participate in:
- Advanced-technology seminars (twice monthly)
- Medicine Morbidity and Mortality (M&M) Rounds (schedules permitting)
- Norris Cotton Cancer Care Pavilion Lebanon Grand Rounds (weekly)
- Radiation Oncology Journal Club (quarterly)
- Radiation Oncology QA/QI meetings (monthly)
- Section-wide chart rounds reviewing new cases (weekly)
- Site-specific tumor boards (typically 1 to 3 per week – see below)
- Weekly conferences covering radiation physics and radiobiology
- Weekly resident teaching conferences
On average the resident attends 1 to 3 hours of Tumor Boards every week while on a clinical service, yielding 100+ hours of multi-disciplinary teaching and experience over the 2 clinical years. In addition, the resident attends further Tumor Boards during his or her elective time.
Tumor Boards at the Norris Cotton Cancer Care Pavilion Lebanon include:
- Breast (weekly)
- CNS (weekly)
- Cutaneous Lymphoma (monthly)
- Endocrine (monthly)
- Gastrointestinal (weekly)
- Genitourinary (weekly)
- Gynecologic (monthly)
- Head & Neck (weekly)
- Lymphoma (weekly)
- Melanoma (twice monthly)
- Molecular (monthly)
- Pediatric (weekly)
- Pituitary (monthly)
- Sarcoma (twice monthly)
- Thoracic (weekly)
Educational resources
Additional resources are numerous, including (for example) free access to electronic library databases and physical libraries, textbook budgets, and support for travel to courses and conferences.
- Residents are provided their own dedicated conference and office space on the Lebanon campus, with V-Tel capabilities for connection to affiliate campuses.
- Radiation oncology residents have electronic access to thousands of academic journals through Dartmouth's Biomedical Libraries resource, including both specialty-specific and broad-based journals.
- The residents are provided with an academic budget for textbooks and travel to conferences.
- Travel expenses are reimbursed directly by the section for posters and presentations at national meetings at which the resident is first-author.
- Each resident is provided time and funding to attend 1 national meeting annually.
- In addition, time away and funding are provided for 1 American Board of Radiology (ABR) Core Exam Review Course during the residency.
Peer support
Supportive interaction amongst our residents is the norm in our program. Upon reaching the PGY-3 year, the Chief Resident has significant educational responsibilities towards his/her junior colleagues. A solid, supportive collegial atmosphere is encouraged and fostered. As there is only 1 resident in a given academic year, this minimizes competition and maximizes opportunities for teaching, learning, and growth.
Interaction with medical residents from other oncology specialties occurs through tumor boards and case management where technical and medical issues intersect. Also, periodically, residents and fellows from oncology-related programs at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (e.g. medical oncology, palliative care, internal medicine, surgery, and diagnostic radiology) rotate through the Section of Radiation Oncology.
The section sponsors several social events each year, including an annual holiday party and a summer outdoor bash. Faculty and residents have periodic Section-sponsored dinners from time to time. In addition, many social venues are available for residents in conjunction with other departments and across the hospital.