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Preparing Hematology/Oncology Fellows for Success: Implementing an Annual Career Development and Research Retreat

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Abstract

Multiple factors, including job satisfaction, personality traits, and training experiences, influence the career trajectory of hematology/oncology fellows. In an effort to expose hematology/oncology fellows to (1) the various careers in oncology, (2) a diverse group of speakers for future mentorship, and (3) research opportunities, and grant writing experience, we established an annual career development and research retreat. During the retreat, we engaged speakers who covered a range of career trajectories, including academic, private practice, industry, government, and administrative paths. We introduced clinicians and researchers with a track record of providing top-notch mentorship to fellows with aligning interests and detailed research opportunities and grant writing. The sessions were led by senior fellows, and we adopted an in-person and virtual hybrid model to allow speakers from various institutions to participate. Feedback from participants, as gathered through surveys, indicated positive responses: all respondents reported that this retreat was “extremely” or “very helpful,” and a majority expressed their intent to pursue academic careers. The curriculum and structure of this retreat may help to inform the development of fellowship career development and research retreats at other institutions.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Oncology, Department of Oncology, Mayo Clinic, 200 First St SW, Rochester, MN, USA

    Akeem R. Lewis, Grace M. Choong, Elizabeth Cathcart-Rake, Siddhartha Yadav, Harry Fuentes, Daniel S. Childs & Timothy J. Hobday

  2. Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

    Narjust Florez

  3. Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Urshila Durani, Antoine Saliba & Jonas Paludo

  4. Providence Cancer Specialist-Montana, Missoula, MT, USA

    Karl Sorensen

Authors
  1. Akeem R. Lewis
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  2. Grace M. Choong
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  3. Elizabeth Cathcart-Rake
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  4. Narjust Florez
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  5. Urshila Durani
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  6. Siddhartha Yadav
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  9. Daniel S. Childs
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  12. Timothy J. Hobday
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. ARL and GMC contributed equally to this paper, by organizing the retreat presented, conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft. EC-R, NF, UD, SY, HF, KS, DC, AS were all past chief fellows that performed a career development retreat in their respective years and contributed to the investigation and writing. JP and TJH were the program directors that assisted in facilitating the career development retreat and contributed to the investigation and writing of this paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Akeem R. Lewis.

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Conflict of Interest

ARL, GMC, ECR, UD, HF, KS, DC, AS, JP, and TJH state no conflicts of interest.

NF’s disclosures are as follows:

Advisory/consulting: Merck, Pfizer, Mirati, AstraZeneca, Regeneron, and NeoGenomics, Inc. Research funding: Genentech.

SY’s disclosures are as follows:

Advisory Board: Astrazeneca (Institutional- no personal compensation). Research funding: Astrazeneca, Repare Therapeutics (Institutional).

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Lewis, A.R., Choong, G.M., Cathcart-Rake, E. et al. Preparing Hematology/Oncology Fellows for Success: Implementing an Annual Career Development and Research Retreat. J Canc Educ 39, 58–64 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-023-02375-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-023-02375-9

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