Education

The UVA Hematology-Oncology fellowship program trains fellows to provide high-quality patient care across all areas of hematology/oncology.

The first year of fellowship consists of a robust clinical experience with three hospital-based rotations (malignant hematology inpatient, non-malignant hematology consults, and medical oncology consults) mixed with outpatient clinic-based rotations.

The second and third years of fellowship are comprised primarily of outpatient clinical rotations and dedicated research time, with only several months of inpatient rotation time spread over both years. This design allows significant flexibility for fellows to tailor training to their individual career goals.

Throughout all three years of fellowship, fellows work in a disease-specific continuity clinic for six or 12 months (third-year fellows only).

As a combined hematology/oncology fellowship program, our fellows complete a minimum of 18 months of full-time clinical training across malignant hematology, non-malignant hematology, and medical oncology.

Outpatient clinical electives

Fellows can participate in various outpatient clinic electives throughout their fellowship. These electives are typically either 4 or 8 weeks in length. These disease-focused electives aim to provide fellows with an immersive and concentrated experience with expert clinical training in a given field. During an outpatient clinical elective, fellows typically attend four half-day clinic sessions and the disease-specific tumor board in addition to their continuity clinic and educational conferences.

• Breast Oncology
• Community Oncology
• GI Oncology
• GU Oncology
• Leukemia and marrow failure
• Malignant hematology potpourri (3rd years only)
• Medical oncology potpourri (3rd years only)
• Melanoma and HNSCC oncology
• Myeloma and lymphoma
• Classical (non-malignant) hematology
• Stem cell transplant (required of 1st-year fellows)
• Thoracic Oncology

Outpatient Continuity Clinic

The continuity clinic provides a major portion of a fellow’s education in the natural history and management of hematologic and oncologic diseases. Continuity clinic includes one half day per week in a disease-specific clinic. Continuity rotations occur at six or twelve-month intervals (12-month clinics are available only to 3rd-year fellows).

During continuity clinic, 1st-year fellows are expected to learn appropriate diagnostic evaluation and treatment regimens for each disease state and expand treatment options for refractory disease by the 2nd and 3rd year of fellowship. Fellows are expected to participate in disease-specific tumor boards and other disease-specific research meetings or didactic conferences.

Procedural Training

All our fellows are trained to perform bone marrow biopsies and aspirates. First-year fellows participate in hands-on training in a simulation lab and then perform their first bone marrow biopsies with close faculty or APP supervision before being signed off to independently perform bone marrow biopsies and aspirates.

Inpatient clinical rotations

Fellows work on the following inpatient rotations throughout the fellowship, though most of their inpatient coverage time occurs during the 1st year. There are approximately six rotations during the first year (each rotation is typically four weeks) and four rotations spread over the remainder of the fellowship.

Inpatient Malignant Hematology Teaching Service

On this rotation, the fellows manage a wide range of malignant hematology patients with internal medicine residents and a malignant hematology attending. The teaching service combines acute leukemia patients undergoing induction therapy, receiving cellular therapy such as CAR-T or allogeneic transplants, and receiving therapy for aggressive lymphomas or other serious hematologic diseases. In addition to the teaching service, there is a non-teaching service that manages routine chemotherapy admissions, autologous transplants, and additional allogeneic transplants.

Fellow responsibilities include overseeing the daily care of all patients on service by serving as a consultant to house officers and a liaison with faculty and staff. Fellows also work closely with pharmacy and hematopathology teams to coordinate treatment decisions. Second and third-year fellows are expected to manage rounds with attending oversight. The fellow and attending physician team provide consultations for patients with malignant hematologic conditions on other hospital services.

Inpatient Oncology Consult Service

The oncology consult service involves evaluating and managing inpatient oncology consultations with a disease-specific faculty member. Fellows are principally responsible for reviewing data such as pathology results, imaging, and labs to develop plans for patients with newly diagnosed solid tumor malignancies. The fellow also helps to coordinate follow-up care plans with the appropriate outpatient oncology team.

Inpatient Classical (non-malignant) Hematology Consult Service

On the inpatient benign hematology consult service, fellows provide inpatient consultations for various benign hematologic conditions such as bleeding or thrombotic disorders, cytopenias, hemolytic anemias, and hemoglobinopathies. Fellows lead daily rounds with the supervision of hematology attending and provide consulting teams with recommendations. Hematology consults fellows regularly interpret/discuss peripheral blood smears and perform bone marrow aspirations and biopsies when necessary. The hematology consult fellow supervises and teaches the residents and students rotating on the service.

TESTIMONIAL

“Reflecting on my fellowship at UVA, I am immensely grateful for the mentorship and support that have been pivotal in my professional and personal development. Charlottesville has offered a picturesque backdrop to my engaging medical training, with its college-town charm and the natural beauty of the Shenandoah Valley.

The guidance from my mentors at UVA has been exceptional, fostering my growth as a Hematologist and Oncologist. The collaborative environment and the friendships formed with my co-fellows have made my fellowship not only educational but also truly enjoyable.

As I transition from UVA to clinical practice, I carry with me the invaluable lessons, memories, and lifelong friends that will undoubtedly influence my career and life.”

– Chris Z. Thomas, MD, 2024 graduate

The University of Virginia Cancer Center is the only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As an NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center, fellows have ample opportunities to work with investigators in our hematology/oncology division and the broader institution.

The UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center is organized into four core programs. These programs allow physicians and scientists from across the university to collaborate on innovative research projects.

• Cancer Biology Program
• Molecular Genetics and Epigenetics
• Cancer Therapeutics Program
• Cancer Prevention and Population Health Program

Fellow Research

As part of our mission to promote and develop a spirit of inquiry and discovery, fellows are introduced to research opportunities early in their 1st year. During the 1st year, fellows will have approximately 1-2 months of research time to identify a research mentor and plan and design their core research project for the following two years.

All first-year fellows participate in a clinical research workshop series where they practice important skills in grant writing, such as LOI development, preparing aims, and designing a research strategy. Their completed application is then used to apply for internal funding mechanisms that provide fellows with resources to conduct their core research project.

Examples of this funding include paying for support services such as Cancer Center core facility use, statistical support, conference and presentation support, and/or graduate course work.

During the remainder of the fellowship beyond the first year, the amount and structure of research time depend on whether a basic science, translational, or clinical research project(s) is chosen. Fellows also participate in a longitudinal clinical research series in which they learn to ask a scientific question, build a proposal, review statistical methods, and draft grant applications.

TESTIMONIAL

“In the landscape of graduate medical education, UVA and Charlottesville were as close to a utopia as I could have imagined. My three years as a Heme/Onc fellow were challenging, fun and career affirming. The work-life balance allowed my family and I ample time to experience all that this region has to offer – whether it was live music on the downtown mall, hiking in Shenandoah National Park or exploring the local winery/brewery scene, Charlottesville has it all. I graduated with friends for life and the knowledge and confidence to pass my boards and provide outstanding care.”

-Christian Barlow, MD, 2022 graduate

The fellowship educational curriculum is anchored in clinical care and a wide range of lectures, case conferences, workshops, and training modules. These activities are a vital part of our hematology/oncology fellowship education. Almost all conferences are conducted with hybrid conference technology to allow fellows at off-site locations to participate.

The education curriculum is primarily composed of the following components:

• Case conferences
• Faculty-led didactics
• Fellow led didactics
• Workshops
• Tumor boards
• Journal clubs
• Board review
• Division Grand Rounds
• Division M&M conference
• Resources

Case conferences

There are monthly case conferences in malignant and non-malignant hematology and 2 – 3 medical oncology case conferences per month. During a case conference, one or more fellows typically present two patient scenarios and discuss pertinent imaging and diagnostic information along with the evidence to support a treatment decision. These conferences are primarily fellow-led and well-attended by faculty to facilitate critical thinking.

Faculty-led didactics

These are conferences led by faculty, comprising our “core” lecture series.  We follow a general pattern of annual lectures outlined below:

July – August:  orientation, special topics, non-malignant hematology
September – December: breast, GU, GI thoracic
January – April: malignant hematology and transplant / cellular therapies
April – June: less common solid tumors, other topics

Fellow led didactics

These are conferences produced by the fellows and scheduled throughout the year. Fellows typically give 1 – 2 talks annually, with faculty invited to attend.

Workshops

We have several workshops series throughout the year, including:

1. Quality improvement (QI) training lectures and working sessions
   Our fellows participate in a longitudinal quality training program. First-year fellows are exposed to QI methodology and learn about ongoing projects. Late in the first year or early second year, each fellow joins an existing project or creates a project (typically in teams). They continue work on their project through the third year to present and/or publish their work by the end of the fellowship.
2. Resiliency sessions
   Practicing hematology/oncology is a rich but often challenging field concerning our emotional and global well-being. We conduct a mix of journal club activities, book club, and lectures to guide discussions around our work’s internal and corporate processing.
3. Clinical and translational research workshop
   See our Scholarship link for more information about this workshop

Tumor boards

We have multiple weekly tumor boards that bring together multi-disciplinary colleagues from surgery, radiology, radiation oncology, pathology, and other medical subspecialties to discuss complicated patient presentations and provide consensus treatment recommendations. Fellows commonly attend the tumor board corresponding to their continuity clinic and are expected to present patients during tumor board discussions.

Journal Clubs

We typically have at least one fellow-led journal club per month corresponding to a disease group lecture series to review recent articles and/or conference presentations. These are often less formal discussions and are sometimes held off-site with an informal gathering feel.

Board review

Interspersed throughout each disease block of lectures, fellows typically have at least one board review sessions where a fellow selects a group of questions to discuss with the group. Disease-specific attendings commonly attend these sessions to facilitate understanding the question and provide context.

Division Grand Rounds

Our Division of Hematology/Oncology conducts a monthly lecture series where a colleague or an outside guest speaker presents a CME-accredited lecture to the faculty and larger division. In addition to our division grand rounds series, the Department of Medicine hosts a weekly grand round, and the UVA Cancer Center hosts a weekly seminar series during the academic year.

Division M&M conference

The Division of Hematology/Oncology hosts a monthly M&M conference where fellows typically present a patient from either their inpatient rotations or outpatient clinics. Some of our recent QI projects were developed from M&M discussions. The conference is viewed as a collaborative effort to improve our care delivery and identify opportunities to improve patient outcomes.

Resources

Fellows receive access to the ASCO Online Fundamentals and ASH Academy. Our program also pays for all fellows to take the annual in-training examinations in hematology (ASH) and oncology (ASCO) to identify areas of improvement in preparation for the board examinations. Lastly, we also identify resources to allow fellows to attend and/or present at national and international conferences.

TESTIMONIAL

“My wife and I were new to Charlottesville when I started fellowship in July 2021, and we have loved getting to know the town, the vineyards, and Shenandoah National Park. UVA has meant a lot to us in our few years here. During my second year we had our son 8 weeks early and spent about a month in the UVA NICU. I felt incredibly supported by not only the hospital teams taking care of our son, but also the heme/onc program leadership, my attendings, and my co-fellows who went out of their way to make things easier on us. I’ve received well-balanced clinical training and have had every opportunity I could want for research and mentorship. I feel well-prepared for my future career as a hematologist and medical oncologist.”

– Will Thomas, MD, Current Fellow

We are only able to accept international applicants who hold a J-1 visa.

How to Apply

This is a two-step process. Application is conducted through ERAS.  To apply to the program, you must complete the second step.

• Enter ERAS application information anytime between July 3, 2024 – July 17, 2024. Documents will be accepted from ERAS only.
• Submit your ERAS application to the specific institution of your choice (i.e., the University of Virginia). UVA begins reviewing applications on or after July 19, 2024.
• All interviews will be held in September and early October 2024.
• All interviews will conclude on or before October 15, 2024.

These documents are required in the ERAS system before we will evaluate your application.

• Common application form
• Personal statement
• Medical school transcript
• Three required (four recommended) letters of recommendation: one from your Program Director and 2 – 3 others from faculty at your present institution
• Wallet-sized color photograph
• USMLE transcripts
• ECFMG status report (foreign medical graduates only)

Fellowship Education Contact Information