Fellowship
We would like to provide a short preface to this summary of the fellowship program in hematology-oncology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). In this program the subspecialties of hematology and oncology are fully integrated into a single service. The fellowship is administered by both of us as a team. The aim of the program is to produce scholars who will devote their careers, in different proportions, to clinical care, teaching, and clinical or basic research. We make every effort to tailor the program to the specific needs of our trainees. Hence, we will provide somewhat different programs for trainees interested in laboratory research and those interested in more clinical careers. We expect that all graduates of our program will become first class clinicians and teachers and that all will have substantial exposure to investigative work in either a basic or a clinical field. In recognition of the program's success in producing physician-scientists, we have had the support of NIH training grants for over 25 years. We are equally proud of our graduates who have entered careers more concerned with clinical care and clinical research.
The program in hematology-oncology at BIDMC is expanding in both clinical and scientific breadth. The merger between the Beth Israel and New England Deaconess Hospitals in 1996 precipitated dramatic growth of our academic and clinical programs, as shown in the descriptions of specific program areas elsewhere in this brochure. In 1998, BIDMC became a main institution member of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG). U.S. News and World Report lists the BIDMC Cancer Care and Research Program among the best cancer programs in the nation.
The number of patients that we see has been growing progressively, and there is a vast array of patients with common and more esoteric clinical disorders. There are currently more than 51,000 patient visits annually to our ambulatory Hematology-Oncology center. As the following pages will indicate, we have also been expanding our investigational base by recruiting new faculty members with diverse, exciting research programs in biologic therapies of cancer, hemostasis and thrombosis, and endothelial cell biology. In addition, clinical research has been flourishing with clinical programs spanning the breadth of hematology and oncology, emphasizing diagnosis, management, and longitudinal follow-up of patients. Of special note are laboratory-based programs on hematopoiesis, signal transduction, and the biochemistry of coagulation factors as well as translational research programs in prostate cancer, melanoma, renal cancer, adoptive immunotherapy, and hypercoaguable states. Many of our clinical programs are multidisciplinary and function as disease site programs within BIDMC (e.g. breast cancer, cutaneous oncology, thoracic oncology, genitourinary oncology, GI oncology). As our clinical and research programs have grown, so too have our faculty and fellowship ranks. In keeping with these developments, we have added new clinical rotations to our clinical training program so as to provide an optimal balance between the invaluable experience of managing many patients with different disorders and allowing time for reflection, reading, and some clinical research.
We believe that ours is a dynamic and ideal training environment. It is based in a medical center that is renowned for humane, superlative clinical care, and is combined with teaching and cutting edge research to produce a stimulating introduction to the subspecialties of hematology and oncology, which have so much excitement to offer at the present time. We invite you to contact either of us if you wish any additional information about this program.
Reed E. Drews, M.D.
Director, Hematology-Oncology Fellowship Program
Associate Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Lowell E. Schnipper, M.D.
Chief, Division of Hematology-Oncology
Theodore W. and Evelyn G. Berenson
Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
