Radiation Oncology Residency

College

  • Center City Campus
  • Sidney Kimmel Medical College

Degree Earned

  • Residency

Program Type

  • On Campus

Requirements

Application Process

Leadership

Name: Lydia Komarnicky-Kocher, MD
Position:
  • Program Director, Medical Residency Program
  • Program Director, Medical Education Clerkship
  • Professor, Radiation Oncology

Program Contact

Name: Phyllis Lewis
Position: Education Coordinator

111 S. 11th Street
Bodine Cancer Center - Gibbon
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Contact Number(s):

Curriculum

Beyond the clinical responsibilities, residents obtain a comprehensive educational experience during their four years of training. Specific learning experiences include conferences within the department and throughout Thomas Jefferson University, as well as national conferences, through interaction with fellow residents and faculty, and by teaching medical students.

Specific learning experiences include didactic lectures, visiting professors, grand rounds in radiation oncology, multidisciplinary conferences and tumor boards, resident didactics, volume reviews, journal clubs, research strategy meetings, and QA conferences.

Didactics & Speakers

Residents attend a series of lectures designed to supplement their clinical education during rotations. Faculty members present lectures related to their disease site of interest. Jefferson routinely invites noted leaders of the field to give lectures and meet with residents.

Residents also attend Multidisciplinary Tumor Boards with their respective attending, as well as twice-weekly Quality Assurance (QA) Rounds (New Patient Tumor Boards).

Physics & Molecular Radiation Biology

Medical physics and molecular radiation biology lectures are held weekly for the PGY 2, PGY 3, and PGY 4 residents to attend. Faculty present medical physics lectures and cover fundamentals, including radiation delivery, dose calculations, treatment planning, brachytherapy, and radiation safety. The basic science curriculum continues with radiobiology. Radiobiology topics include classical radiation biology, carcinogenesis, fractionation, radiosensitization and protection, and molecular signaling pathway. Both lecture series cover all topics pertinent to the physics and radiobiology boards. Jefferson residents have had an excellent track record of performance on the board exams.

Conferences

Residents attend national educational conferences, such as ASTRO and ASCO, as well as weekly local grand rounds. Residents actively participate in multidisciplinary conferences and tumor boards in gynecological cancers, breast cancer, stereotactic radiosurgery, head and neck cancer, colorectal/pancreas cancer, and genitourinal cancer. These conferences are attended by pathologists, surgeons, radiologists, and medical oncologists, in addition to radiation oncologists.

Our residents attend intradepartmental clinical oncology conferences that address new patient management, patient safety, principles of palliative care, principles of patient-centered care, principles of practice management, financial principles of medical practice, health policy, clinical informatics, and continuous quality improvement. In addition, our residents also have the opportunity to apply to the annual ASCO/AACR Methods in Clinical Care Research Workshop held in Vail, CO.