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Rad Onc...anyone have stories to tell?


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Hi Dubzter,

 

Great thread and I really appreciate your enthusiasm. I just had a question regarding applying to medical school. You stated a few posts before that rad. onc had the most MD/PhD's: Should we, as applicants, be applying to MD/Phd programs or will MD suffice?

 

How competitive is rad onc. compared to say Plastic Surgery or Dermatology?

 

Thanks,

GilGilGil

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Hi Dubzter,

 

Great thread and I really appreciate your enthusiasm. I just had a question regarding applying to medical school. You stated a few posts before that rad. onc had the most MD/PhD's: Should we, as applicants, be applying to MD/Phd programs or will MD suffice?

 

How competitive is rad onc. compared to say Plastic Surgery or Dermatology?

 

Thanks,

GilGilGil

 

Hey there,

 

-22% of applicants to rad onc in the US have MD/Phds and a lot of top rad onc programs in the states do tend to select towards MD/PhDs. In Canada, having a PhD looks good but isn't a requirement to match.

 

-As far as competitiveness, in the US, rad onc is just as competitive as Plastics or Derm. In Canada, less competitive than plastics or derm. To put it into perspective, for 2011-2012 CaRms, we are interviewing 16 applicants for 2 spots.

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Out of curiosity, what is the number of openings in rad onc jobs every year in Canada? Carms already have information on the number of new rad onc grads, so I am interested in the rough ratio of how many jobs are there compared to the number of graduates.

 

The number fluctuates and I don't have any concrete numbers but based on what I hear through the grapevine and extrapolating from Ontario data to the rest of Canada, I would guess 15-20 for the entire country. Demand is definitely up throughout the entire country and the number of rad on training spots in Canada has gone down so the outlook for the field is good. At my program, none of our grads for the past 3 yrs have had any trouble finding jobs once they were done their residency/fellowship. We have one graduate who was suppose to do a fellowship at PMH but instead took a locum -> staff position at Grand River. At our cancer center, they've hired 2 new rad oncs since I started residency, and there is another rad onc who will be joining us later in the year.

 

In the states there are ~150 new rad onc grads every year but there are currently over 1000 rad onc locum/job postings last time I checked. When you compare these numbers to Canadian data, it is true that jobs are harder to come by in Canada but this tends to be the trend for the majority of specialties in this country.

 

Take home message, I wouldn't worry too much about not being able to get a job in rad onc 5 yrs down the road. Program directors don't plan on opening the floodgates to train more rad oncs anytime soon. Residency training in rad onc is equivalent in both countries so moving to somewhere sunny in the US if you get tired of the cold is always an option.

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Hey DubZter,

 

What do you think about the results of the R1 match for Rad Onc? I posted this in the CaRMS forum, but I would be interested in your opinion.

 

There were 8 spots left over (of 21) for Rad Onc this year. Some schools didn't even match a single resident (Queen's, Western) that normally get 2.

 

Reaction to the job market for Rad Onc? I know you painted a rosey picture in your last post, but apparently of 31 2009/2010 graduates who responded to a survey, 22 of them haven't found full-time work. Even if you assume everyone who didn't respond has full-time work, only ~55% are finding full-time jobs

 

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/09/19/demand-high-but-medical-specialists-not-finding-work-in-canada/

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Thanks for the response - it is interesting to hear the point of view from someone in the field.

 

Out of curiosity, is there a centralized resource for American (or Canadian) job postings? Or is it mainly word of mouth?

 

For Canada usually postings are word of mouth and get sent out to the institution/programs. In the states, ASTRO has job postings, you can also check out Indeed and a handful of other sites.

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Hi there,

 

I have matched to Med Fam of Ottawa University this year.

Rad Onc. fascinate me so much (tech toy, take care of ending patient, lifestyle...). My CV is quite good with Msc of Epi and clinical research experience. I really have intention to apply for changing to Rad Onc. Do you think that this idea will be feasible ?

 

Many thanks your suggestions !

 

Fan_med

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Hi there,

 

I have matched to Med Fam of Ottawa University this year.

Rad Onc. fascinate me so much (tech toy, take care of ending patient, lifestyle...). My CV is quite good with Msc of Epi and clinical research experience. I really have intention to apply for changing to Rad Onc. Do you think that this idea will be feasible ?

 

Many thanks your suggestions !

 

Fan_med

 

Sorry haven't been on this site in a long time. Hope things worked out for you! :)

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Sorry haven't been on this site in a long time. Hope things worked out for you! :)

 

Thanks for asking me ! I got an interview with Ottawa Program, unfortunately it wasn't working !!! Because I love this field I think I will try another shot next year. Could you pls give me some advises for having more chance of success !:confused:

 

fan_med

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  • 1 month later...
Thanks for asking me ! I got an interview with Ottawa Program, unfortunately it wasn't working !!! Because I love this field I think I will try another shot next year. Could you pls give me some advises for having more chance of success !:confused:

 

fan_med

 

research is important when applying to rad onc. are you currently involved in a rad onc research project? if not I would recommend contacting your local university if there is a rad onc program.

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research is important when applying to rad onc. are you currently involved in a rad onc research project? if not I would recommend contacting your local university if there is a rad onc program.

 

Thanks Dubzter ! I'm actively looking for a research project but no result so far at my site...So quite disappointing !!!

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  • 5 months later...
research is important when applying to rad onc. are you currently involved in a rad onc research project? if not I would recommend contacting your local university if there is a rad onc program.

 

Hi DubZteR,

 

Long time I don't see your post. Still not working for me this year at 2nd CaRMS iteration even I had an IV at McMaster. Very disappointing !!! Probably, I have to forgot Rad Onc and finish my fam residency...

 

Fan_med

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  • 9 months later...

Sorry to revive this thread, but for those of us ranking Rad Onc rotations/choosing electives - Calgary vs Alberta: What would set them apart? A previous post mentioned that Alberta and the Cross Cancer Center is more well known, but I heard a lot of positive experiences at Calgary.

 

As well, what makes MacMaster stand out?

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minor timbit of news - Just doing my rad onc rotation right now, and it seems that collectively all the rad onc program directors have decided to prevent any transfers into rad onc during residency due to the current job situation - so the only way to do a rad onc residency is directly through CARMS.

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