3512 - Assessing Individuals Who Graduate from a U.S. Radiation Oncology Residency Program and Subsequently Pursued a Fellowship

K. Hsieh¹, C. Yu¹, D. Panse¹, J. Runnels¹, A. D. Nehlsen¹, L. Resende Salgado¹, J. P. Rowley², and K. Sindhu¹; ¹Department of Radiation Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, ²Department of Radiation Oncology, Maimonides Cancer Center, Brooklyn, NY

Purpose/Objective(s): Radiation oncology (RO) fellowships are offered to residency graduates interested in gaining additional training. In this study, we sought to better understand the outcomes of individuals who pursue such fellowships after graduating from US RO residency programs. Materials/

Methods: We generated a database of individuals who completed an ACGME-accredited RO residency training program in the US between 2015 and 2022. We then identified those individuals who subsequently pursued a RO fellowship. Multiple publicly available sources were utilized to build this database, such as hospital/institutional websites, residency/fellow training program websites, LinkedIn, and Doximity. We used descriptive statistics and the Chi-Square Goodness of Fit test to analyze our data.
Results: We identified 78 individuals who graduated from US RO residency programs and went on to pursue fellowship, 52 (66.7%) of whom were men and 26 (33.3%) of whom were women (p>0.05). 20 (25.6%) individuals graduated from large-sized residency programs (=4 graduates per year), 43 (55.1%) from medium-sized programs (1.5-4 graduates per year), and 15 (19.2%) from small-sized programs (=1.5 graduates per year) (p>0.05). 52 (66.7%) individuals completed residency between 2015 and 2018, and 26 (33.3%) between 2019 and 2022. 5 (6.4%) individuals who completed fellowship are not practicing radiation oncologists. The most common fellowships were in research (N = 28), protons (N = 22), and brachytherapy (N = 14). Interestingly, the employment websites of a substantial proportion of fellows did not list the focus of their fellowships as an area of expertise (Table 1).
Conclusion: The vast majority of fellows who graduated from US residency programs pursued fellowships in research, protons, and brachytherapy. Our data raises questions about the long-term utilization of skills acquired in fellowship.

Table 1 * Column percentage is reported. ^† 1 completed a pediatric proton therapy and neuro-oncology fellowship ^‡ 2 completed immunotherapy-related fellowships, 1 gynecology fellowship, 1 epidemiology fellowship, 1 health policy, and 1 genomics fellowship ^§ Row percentage is reported unless otherwise noted. ^¶ 6 participants are still fellows, so the percentage is calculated with a denominator of 16. ^# Individuals who have their own labs, are in a lab, or have investigated clinical trials are included.

Fellowship type	# (%*) of participants	# (%§) of participants who are practicing radiation oncologists in academic settings	# (%§) of participants whose current employment website includes the focus of their fellowship as an area of focus or clinical expertise
Research	22 (28.2%)	14 (87.5%¶)	11# (68.8%¶)
Protons	17 (21.8%)	13 (76.5%)	8 (47.1%)
Brachytherapy	14 (17.9%)	10 (71.4%)	9 (64.3%)
Proton/Pediatric	5† (6.4%)	4 (80.0%)	9 (60.0%)
SRS	4 (5.1%)	1 (25.0%)	0 (0.0%)
Clinical (not otherwise specified)	4 (5.1%)	3 (75.0%)	N/a
Palliative	3 (3.8%)	1 (33.3%)	1 (33.3%)
Not specified	3 (3.8%)	2 (66.7%)	N/a
Other	6‡ (7.7%)	2 (33.3%)	N/a