Harvard Radiation Oncology Program Vision and Aims
Vision: The Harvard Radiation Oncology Program is a caring, collaborative community of faculty, residents, and staff – situated in two outstanding, partnered radiation oncology departments within Mass General Cancer Center and Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s/Boston Children’s Cancer Center. Our community’s core values are compassion, integrity, inclusivity, teamwork, and clinical excellence. We bring our diversity of backgrounds, perspectives, and interests to educate, nurture, and equip the next generation of radiation oncologists to serve individuals, their loved ones, and communities affected by cancer.
Aims: HROP’s primary aims are to educate residents to:
- Provide outstanding, compassionate clinical care to patients with cancer and their families;
- Advance cancer care through research inquiry, education, and scholarship;
- Provide thoughtful and innovative leadership in medicine; and,
- Optimize health care delivery and access to ensure the best cancer care for all.
The educational philosophy of the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program can be broken down into four principles:
- To provide comprehensive clinical education using the large patient population and specialist faculty available at our affiliated hospitals.
- To provide training in cancer and radiation biology and medical physics that goes beyond the requirements of the board exam.
- To develop clinical, translational and/or basic science research skills through mentored and protected research time.
- To develop future leaders in academic medicine through this clinical training, research opportunities and graded responsibility within the program.
The resources of Harvard Medical School and our affiliated hospitals together with the talents of our faculty are, we believe, an unparalleled resource. They provide residents with an opportunity to build a strong foundation in both academic and clinical radiation therapy.
The training program consists of four years, which include three clinical years organized into 10-week rotation blocks at our member hospitals. These include the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH), and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), as well as satellite locations for these hospitals. Additionally, residents spend their PGY4 year as a dedicated research year.
A mainstay of our training program is the morning conference where residents discuss the clinical management of patients and the application of the medical literature to medical decision making. We also offer periodic seminars in biology, clinical physics, and treatment planning. Each year, residents will prepare and prepare a one-hour seminar on a topic of their choice with tutorial assistance from faculty members. Annual didactic courses covering clinical topics, radiation physics, and radiation and cancer biology are an integral part of our program.
In every aspect of our residency, the faculties are guided by the belief that we must simultaneously provide both outstanding training experiences and superior patient care. Our goal is to educate the next generation of world-class clinicians, physician-scientists and leaders. We are proud of the training program we offer and our long tradition of graduating radiation oncologists that have served as leaders for our profession. I hope you will consider our program for your education.
History of the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program
The Harvard Radiation Oncology Program (HROP) resulted from joining two established Harvard Medical School residency programs: the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) program and the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy (JCRT) program in the Longwood Area. Each had a long history of commitment to excellence and academic achievement and the union brought together these strengths.
In 2001, Partners (now Mass General Brigham) requested the merger of the MGH and Brigham and Women’s radiation oncology training programs. It was decided to fully merge the MGH and JCRT Longwood entities to create a Harvard-wide program. In responding to this request for a merged program, Drs. Jay Loeffler and Jay Harris, the two Chairs, wrote “We believe that by combining two of the most respected training programs in the country, we will have, without question, the most competitive and effective training program in this country.” The leadership of HROP sought to maintain the unique characteristics of the individual programs, while at the same time creating a sense of unity and camaraderie among the residents and faculty through joint academic and social events and a thorough combined curriculum.
It was decided that the united program would have a single Program Director (currently Dr. Tracy Balboni) and, given its large size, Associate Program Directors on each side of town. In addition we have an Executive Committee that oversees major strategy and policy issues, and a Program Evaluation Committee that sets out improvement goals each year. HROP was approved for a total of up to 30 residents over the 4 years of training, the largest in the country. The first HROP entering class was in 2003-04. By 2006-07, all 4 classes in the training program were HROP residents.
For many years residents also rotated to Boston Medical Center and to the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital. Those institutions are no longer part of the program and we have a more compact and streamlined training centered around the MGH and the Brigham/Dana Farber. Research opportunities for residents are available across the entire Harvard and MIT systems.
HROP’s mission is to train the future leaders in oncology. Residents need to have a commitment to specialized training in laboratory, translational, clinical, or health services research. In a survey of academic training program directors and chairs in Radiation Oncology published in 2013, Harvard was listed as having generated 13 chairs and 7 program directors. This number is likely higher by now! The next closest program had 3 chairs and 5 program directors. (Ref: Wilson, L, Haffty B, Smith B A profile of Academic Training Program Directors and Chairs in Radiation Oncology Int J Radiation Oncol Biol Phys 2013: 85, 1168-1171).
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