ASO Author Reflections: Perspectives on the Application Process to Complex General Surgical Oncology Fellowship Training

Excerpt

Although major free-standing cancer centers had well-established training programs in surgery as it relates to oncology for the better half of the twentieth century, it wasn’t until 1978 that the leadership of the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) formalized criterion for training. In this historic year, the “surgical oncologist” was defined, as was the curriculum required of fellowship training programs, which paved the way for surgical oncology as we know it today. In 1983, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and Ohio State University became the first fellowship training programs approved, and interested applicants were required to apply through the SSO. Fellowship training programs expanded greatly under the SSO, which continued to govern the application process until 2015. In 2014, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) took over the responsibility of approving surgical oncology training programs, which shifted the application process through the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) the following year. Having been an applicant in the years before the AAMC’s involvement, I can, on firm ground, state that the lack of data about what may be required to successfully matriculate was anxiety-provoking. In the absence of data, rumors abound, and this was certainly true of my application experience. …