Clinical Rotations
Fellows will spend approximately 10 months on service each year at our three treatment locations. See below for more information on each of these clinical rotations.
Fellows spend 6 to 8 months per year on this service. Each rotation consists of two teams, each responsible for approximately 11 beds primarily used for the management of patients receiving chemotherapy for acute leukemia, or undergoing allogeneic or autologous stem cell transplantation. Approximately 200 transplants are performed on this unit per annum.This service provides experience in the primary management of inpatients with:
- acute myelogenous leukemia
- acute lymphoblastic leukemia
- chronic myeloid leukemia
- aplastic anemia
- myelodysplastic syndromes
- multiple myeloma
- some aggressive lymphomas
Other patients with relapsed lymphomas and solid tumors are managed during their transplant course. Experience is gained in the pre-transplant evaluation of patients and their donors, as well as in the prevention and management of regimen related toxicity, graft-vs-host disease, and the infectious complications of bone marrow transplantation.
Fellows rotate first-line night and weekend call from home approximately 1 in every 5 nights/weekends, staff permitting. The Fellow is the primary caregiver and assists the senior staff with the care of Leukemia/BMT patients during night call.
Fellows spend 2 to 4 months per year on this service. This facility consists of 22 treatment rooms allowing a total of 30-40 patients to be evaluated/treated daily.This service provides experience in the treatment of patients requiring:
- out-patient chemotherapy
- antimicrobials
- immunosuppressive agents
- transfusion support
- intensive follow-up pre or post-admission to hospital
- autologous transplantation in multiple myeloma
Fellows will have one clinic day a week assigned to them for 1-2 months and are able to follow and manage outpatients under the supervision of their faculty mentor. This facility consists of 9 exam rooms for the initial review and the post-treatment management of patients. Clinics are held Monday through Thursday; a clinic nurse assesses patients prior to them being seen by the physician.
Clinical Research
Fellows usually have 2 months of 'off service' time per year. All fellows are expected to utilize off service time to produce clinical research.
Fellows are encouraged to participate in the design, organization, implementation and analysis of clinical trials, in association with senior staff. Fellows are expected to play a significant role in at least 1-2 publications during the first year of fellowship, and submit abstracts to/present at one major meeting. Fellows who have submitted abstracts will be funded to attend 1 meeting per year.
Fellows who are interested in laboratory research should commit to 1-2 years of additional fellowship training. Training opportunities are available by arrangement and are dependent on prior laboratory experience, performance and availability of funds. Fellows doing laboratory research may be asked to take limited night and weekend call (no more than 1/5) and will continue to follow patients longitudinally in clinic.Additional laboratory research is available in the following areas:
- Cryogenic and Marrow Processing Laboratory, Terry Fox Laboratory: Offers experience in laboratory procedures related to processing and freezing of autologous blood or bone marrow.
- Stem Cell Assay Service, Terry Fox Laboratory: Offers experience in laboratory procedures related to clonogenic assays and long-term culture of blood and marrow progenitor cells.
- Cell Separator Unit, Vancouver Hospital: Offers experience in apheresis procedures including therapeutic plasmaphereses, therapeutic leukaphereses, peripheral blood stem cell (autologous and allogeneic) collection and buffy coat (allogeneic) collection.
- Immunology, Vancouver Hospital: Offers experience in the practical aspects of immunology related to marrow transplantation.
Teaching
Fellows will be expected to participate in several teaching conference and activities including:
- Outpatient Review Rounds
- Sign-out Rounds
- Wednesday Noon Rounds (fellow to present 1-2 times per year)
- Hematology Journal Club
- Hematology Lecture Series
Please see our Events for more information.
Fellows will be provided access to training materials including:
- L/BMT treatment manual
- Treatment protocols database
- Publications archive
- Presentation archive