In recent years, surgical oncology has become increasingly competitive. If you're looking to pursue a career in general surgery, it's important to understand the level of competition you'll face when applying for a residency. According to the AAMC Charting the Outcomes report, MD applicants for one place in the program had 8.3 volunteer experiences, 3.6 work experiences, 4 research experiences, and 7.1 abstracts, presentations, and publications. This makes general surgery a medium-level specialty in terms of the number of publications needed.
The Society for Surgical Oncology (SSO) has approved all five Canadian programs, which are also accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. To be an SSO-approved training program, certain requirements must be met. The da Vinci surgical system is a robotic platform designed to expand the surgeon's capabilities and offer a minimally invasive option for complex general surgical oncology procedures. People who are motivated to pursue a career in surgical oncology may choose to attend these residencies because of their affiliations with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Centers (CCC) or the Canadian General Surgery Oncology (CGSO).
Applicants who attended allopathic medical school in the United States or who trained in a university surgical residency were more likely to be accepted into a CGSO scholarship. These programs must meet the requirements of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) program for graduate medical education in complex general surgical oncology. Farma spoke to oncology fellows about the most important thing they learned as an intern, how fellows can manage their finances, and the skills a fellow should develop during their fellowship. As interest and need for specialized cancer care has increased, the surgical community has established standardized fellowship training in surgical oncology.
Farma earned her Master of Medicine degree from Temple University Lewis Katz School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before completing a surgical fellowship at the NCI in Bethesda, Maryland, and at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. The Division of Surgical Oncology has a particular clinical and academic focus on treating hepatopancreatobiliary, gastroesophageal, peritoneal surface and endocrine malignancies and regional therapies (HIPEC and hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy). They also need to know the palliative side of surgical oncology and how to lead and manage difficult conversations. In addition, a residency was considered linked to an NCI-CCC if a resident of any level of training rotated in a surgical oncology capacity at that institution.
To stand out as an applicant for a general surgery residency program, it's important to understand how competitive this medical specialty is.
