The NCI Surgical Oncology Fellowship is a highly competitive two-year training program consisting of six months of clinical rotations (thoracic, endocrine, GI, and consultative surgery), as well as 18 months of dedicated laboratory research. During the past 40 years, the Surgical Oncology Fellowship Program (SOFP) has been highly successful; many former fellows are now leaders in surgical oncology and thoracic surgery at major academic medical centers throughout the United States. Originally run by Dr. Rosenberg from the Surgery Branch, the Surgical Oncology Fellowship transferred to TGIB under my direction following the recent reorganization of the CCR. A core mission of Thoracic and GI Surgery Sections of TGIB is to maintain the legacy of the SOFP, and enhance the academic experience of its participants. Following transfer of the Fellowship to TGIB, we have initiated several changes to strengthen the academic aspects of the program. For example we have initiated a formal evaluation process for assessing clinical performance of the fellows while on the clinical services. In addition, we have initiated a conference devoted to covering the American College of Surgeons core curriculum over a 2 year period. Furthermore, we have revised another weekly conference to improve the quality of case discussions, and have initiated monthly presentations by expert guest speakers from within the NIH as well as regional medical centers. In addition to these fellowship-specific activities, there are weekly TGIB, Immunotherapy and Endocrine Surgery conferences, biweekly Thoracic as well as GI tumor boards, and numerous NIH-wide conferences that enhance education of the fellows. The laboratory training experience is the major component of the fellowship program, and is uniformly identified as the impetus for physicians seeking admission to the SOFP. Each year, eight physicians enter the SOFP; three of these individuals are tracking directly from the Tumor Immunology Fellowship in the Surgery Branch. The remaining five individuals are selected from outside institutions specifically for the two-year SOFP. These are uniformly highly motivated and competitive candidates. Overall, there are currently 18 FTEs for the SOFP, and 3 FTEs for the Tumor Immunology Fellowship on the Surgical Core of the TGIB BMS. With the exception of 4 fellows currently listed as staff who are completing their surgical rotations and have not as yet been assigned to laboratories, the remaining fellows are in Surgical TGIB or Surgery Branch laboratories, and are included in the annual reports of their respective PIs. From the Surgical Core, allocations that support the fellows while they are on the clinical service or in the lab (salary, supplies and services, and travel/training) are now distributed in a prorated fashion twice a year to more equitably fond PIs who take people into the lab, thereby better aligning the fellowship academic year, which commences in July, with the fiscal year which commences in October. These modifications to the BMS allocations have been initiated to smoothen out laboratory funding for fellowship training, and maintain overall budgetary transparency related to the SOFP. These activities are tracked and reviewed on a weekly basis with TGIB AOs.
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