Residency Information
Last updated Tuesday, December 04, 2007
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UWMC tumor rotation
The musculoskeletal oncology service at the University of Washington is
organized as an adult service at the University of Washington Medical
Center and as a pediatric orthopedic tumor service at Children's
Hospital.About the rotation The goal for those services is to teach the initial evaluation and treatment for such lesions to orthopedic residents in a general orthopedic practice. During the adult rotation, residents spend twelve weeks on a very busy adult service, attending to inpatients and outpatients at a high-grade chemotherapy clinic and also evaluating patients with lower-grade tumors at the Bone and Joint Surgery Center tumor clinic. Residents on the adult service at the University are assisted by the orthopedic oncology ACE and a dedicated physician assistant. The care of inpatients is the primary responsibility of the resident and the ACE.
The pediatric bone tumor service revolves around a multidisciplinary clinic on Tuesday afternoons with Dr. Conrad and the orthopedic tumor ACE, a dedicated pediatric oncologist, and a hematology/oncology nurse practitioner.
Both the pediatric and adult services are busy and involve multidisciplinary conferences and clinics for educational purposes. Residents for both services are expected to master the differential diagnosis for bony and soft-tissue musculoskeletal oncology during their rotation.
Goals & Objectives The orthopedic resident experience on the orthopedic oncology service involves attending an educational multidisciplinary oncology conference and clinic. In addition, residents attend surgical cases with Drs. Conrad and Weisstein on two different surgical days at the University. Their care of inpatients and outpatients is in collaboration with the orthopedic attendings, the tumor ACE, and the physician assistant. Differential diagnoses for adult benign and malignant bony lesions, and benign and malignant soft-tissue lesions, in addition to metastatic disease and pseudotumors and dysplasias are experienced in high volume on this high-volume service. Residents are expected to understand the basic principles of initial evaluation and differential diagnosis in addition to principles of biopsy and the basic indications for chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and overall prognosis for different tumor categories.
Pediatric service is structured in a similar way around a
multidisciplinary clinic and conference. Medical oncologists attend the
multidisciplinary clinics and, thus, the residents in both pediatric
and adult tumor services have a primary contact with medical
oncologists, radiation therapists, and a nurse oncologist on both
services.
Clinical projects are encouraged for both the adult and pediatric
services. Basic science programs revolve around the molecular or
genetic basis of sarcomas, in addition to metabolic imaging with PET
scan and a prospective protocol for the assessment of clinical outcomes
in all patients.
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