Hematology Track
Three Year Curriculum Overview
Year 1
The first year of the fellowship focuses on providing participants with a solid foundation of clinical knowledge and experience through high-impact educational conferences and longitudinal, outpatient-focused clinical training. Trainees will be paired with disease experts for more focused learning opportunities.
Year 1 of the fellowship includes:
- Disease-focused half-day clinics (7 half-day sessions per week for 8 months)
- Fellows are assigned longitudinally to work with a faculty mentor in each of their half-day, year-long clinics in classical and malignant hematology. Each faculty mentor has a different clinical focus within hematology, thus providing comprehensive exposure to the spectrum of hematologic disease.
- Fellows assume primary responsibility of the patients for whom they care, in conjunction with their faculty mentor.
- Fellows gain experience delivering care across the spectrum of hematologic disease and survivorship, including active participation in our clinical trials program.
- Inpatient hematology consult service (6 weeks)
- Inpatient hematologic consultation is provided for a vast array of medical services in a tertiary care setting on BIDMC’s East and West Campuses.
- Trainees get rich exposure to hematologic emergencies and consultative issues.
- Independent scholarship & professional development (4 weeks)
- Time for initiation and pursuit of an independent scholarly project of each fellow’s choosing. Fellows will continue this work longitudinally and with mentored oversight during Years 2 and 3 of fellowship training. This includes time for writing IRB proposals, research protocols, manuscripts and grants, as well as time for pursuing of coursework or meetings/collaborations relevant to the individual’s professional development needs.
- Educational conferences (daily, year-long)
- Participation in the longitudinal career development process
- Professional development series: weekly conferences on topics relevant to career development (finding a mentor, careers in hematology/oncology, scholarship pathways, independent funding, finding a job, etc.)
- Team-based, longitudinal career advising
- Biannual mentorship conferences with the fellowship program leadership, including scholarship advisors
- Annual Career Development and Scholarship Advisory Council meetings
- Vacation (3 weeks per academic year)
Year 2 & 3
Following the comprehensive and rigorous outpatient and inpatient clinical experiences during the Year 1, trainees spend the majority of the second year and third years of fellowship training deepening their understanding of hematologic malignancies and pursuing independent scholarly work in an area of their choosing their area of choice. This includes deliberate professional development and support for securing positions in a career of their choosing career selection beyond graduation.
Years 2 & 3 of the fellowship include:
- Longitudinal ambulatory clinics
- Each fellow will define their patient panel and clinical focus, concordant in accordance with their individual goals and supported by the fellowship program’s career development infrastructure.
- A minimum of one half-day session/week is required.
- Inpatient hematologic malignancies (4 weeks, Year 2)
- Intensive exposure to diagnosis, evaluation, and management of patients with hematologic malignancies and related complications thereof, including: autologous and allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation and adoptive cellular therapies.
- Fellows are supervised by expert faculty mentors.
- Clinical electives (6 weeks in Year 2, 6 weeks in Year 3)
- Boston Hemophilia Center, Boston Children’s Hospital
- Boston Children’s Sickle Cell Disease Center, Boston Children’s Hospital
- Global Hematology Rotation, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand
- Vascular Medicine Clinic, BIDMC, Division of Cardiology, Section of Vascular Medicine
- Massive and Submassive Clot On-Call Team (MASCOT) and ECMO Team, BIDMC multidisciplinary collaboration with hematology, cardiology, critical care, and interventional radiology (option to be part of on-call team for any duration, supervised by attending hematologist)
- Mesenteric Thrombosis Multidisciplinary Clinic, a joint clinic held with BIDMC transplant hepatology, interventional radiology and hematology
- High-Risk Pregnancy Multidisciplinary Clinic, a collaboration of BIDMC Divisions of:
- Maternal-Fetal-Medicine and Hematology
- Apheresis and Cellular Therapies, BIDMC Apheresis Unit
- Blood Bank/Transfusion Medicine, BIDMC Department of Pathology
- Hematopathology/Laboratory Medicine/Coagulation, BIDMC Department of Pathology
- Participation in the longitudinal Career career Development development process (year-long)
- Professional Development development series: weekly conference series conferences on topics relevant to career development (including finding a mentor, careers in hematology/oncology, scholarship pathways, independent funding, and finding a job)
- Team-based, longitudinal career advising
- Biannual mentorship conferences with Fellowship fellowship program leadership, including:
- Scholarship advisors
- Annual Career Development and Scholarship Advisory Council meetings
- Additional elective experiences as outlined in the hematology track may also be arranged.
- Participation in the longitudinal career development process, which includes:
- Professional development series: weekly conference series on topics relevant to career development (i.e., finding a mentor, careers in hematology/oncology, scholarship pathways, independent funding, landing a job, etc.)
- Team-based, longitudinal career advising
- Biannual mentorship conferences with fellowship program leadership, including scholarship advisors
- Annual Career Development and Scholarship Advisory Council meetings
- Independent Scholarship scholarship & Professional professional Development development (9 months in year 2, 10 months in year Year 3)
- Trainees get time for continuation of independent scholarly project(s) of each fellow’s their choosing; this work will be continued longitudinally and with mentored oversight. This includes time for writing IRB proposals, research protocols, manuscripts, and grants, as well as; time for pursuing coursework or undertaking meetings/collaborations relevant to the individual’s professional development needs.
- Multiple defined pathways for deliberate professional development are offered. These include*:
- Translational/laboratory investigation: Mentored experiences with application for career development awards (NIH, ASCO, ASH), presentations at locoregional and national/international conferences and meetings, and seminars in grant and& manuscript writing. Formal didactic/course work opportunities include: Harvard Catalyst Models of Disease Boot Camp; Harvard Catalyst Clinical and Translational Research Academy; Harvard-wide Vascular Biology Seminar Series; Hemostasis and Thrombosis Research Seminar Series; Analytical & Quantitative Light Microscopy, MBL, Woods Hole, MA; and the Frank Epstein Research Society (“K” club).
- Clinical investigation: Mentored experiences that include developing and writing a clinical trial protocol, initiating a clinical research study, big data outcomes research, and others. This includes preparation for presentations at locoregional and national/international conferences and meetings, seminars in grant and& manuscript writing. Formal didactic/course work opportunities include: Harvard School of Public Health Program in Clinical Effectiveness,; Harvard Catalyst Models of Disease Boot Camp,; Harvard Catalyst Clinical and Translational Research Academy; and others. The career development strategy includes preparation and mentorship to apply for career development awards (NIH, ASCO, ASH).
- Medical education: Mentored experiences aimed at developing rigorous skills in curriculum development, instructional design and teaching, evaluating educational outcomes, and evaluations and feedback. This includes preparation for presentations at locoregional and national/international conferences and meetings. Formal professional development opportunities include: participation in the Clinician Educator Track for Subspecialty Fellows, BIDMC Academy of Medical Educators, HMS Academy of Medical Educators, ASH Medical Educators Institute and others.
- Patient safety and quality improvement: Mentored experiences involve include comprehensive training through participation in Divisional and Departmental Patient Safety Committees, leadership of the ASCO Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI), serving on leading and planning Divisional Morbidity, Mortality and Improvement (MM&I) Conferences, and engaging in mentored QI projects within the hospital or larger network. Formal course work/didactics include the Harvard Medical School Fellowship in Patient Safety and Quality Improvement.
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Community-based practice: Mentored experiences with emphasis on comprehensive and broad-based training in hHematology/oOncology so as to facilitate expert care and clinical innovations in community-based settings. Professional development in this pathway involves curated clinical experiences both in disease-focused clinics and tumor boards at BIDMC and broad-based clinical care in partnership with expert faculty mentors situated in our community satellites. Mentored experiences include developing expertise in clinical/hospital administration, patient safety and quality improvement, and clinical trials, amongst others. Both finite elective and longitudinal options for community-based training are offered.
*These pathways are not mutually exclusive and can be selected (major focus/minor focus) based upon individual career interests and objectives. Additional elective experiences can be selected to maximally maximize support for the individual career pathway. - Vacation (3 weeks per academic year)