Physician Residency Core Competencies Current Residents FAQ Overview Typical Schedule Why UCI? Physician Residency Home Research Research: Clinical Departments Radiation Oncology: Home Radiation Oncology: Education > Physician Residency Welcome Welcome! The Department of Radiation Oncology is pleased to hear of your interest in our residency training program. It is an exciting time in radiation oncology-- with technological advances and molecular breakthroughs improving our understanding of cancer-- and UCI occupies a special position on the very forefront of academic medicine, ushering innovative ideas from the laboratory to the bedside. Even in this era of shrinking healthcare dollars, the Department of Radiation Oncology at UCI continues to grow at an unprecedented pace. Our talented and renowned faculty members are recognized as patient advocates, pioneers in research, and leaders in academic radiation oncology. As importantly, they are dedicated educators who are ever approachable and down-to-earth. We believe it is the faculty, coupled with our unwavering commitment to cutting-edge technology, basic and translational research, clinical trials, and multidisciplinary patient-centered cancer care that create a dynamic environment in which to train. Allen M. Chen, MD, MBA Chair of Radiation Oncology Jeffrey Kuo, MD Residency Program Director Our Residents Our residents, the centerpiece of the Department, are compassionate, collegial, and accomplished both inside and outside of the hospital-- and truly represent the best and brightest in medicine. Hardly a day goes by where they fail to inspire us and contribute to a culture of unparalleled inquiry, creativity, and collegiality. The opportunity to nurture their individual career development is a tremendous privilege and a responsibility we take extremely seriously at UCI. Our residents are encouraged to think critically; challenged to venture "outside of the box;" and pushed to achieve more than what they think they could otherwise on their own. By imparting them with self-confidence and providing them with the steadfast foundation for lifelong learning, we aim to help our residents attain their full potential as healers, investigators, scientists, and leaders in medicine. We are incredibly proud of the Department of Radiation Oncology at UCI and our residency program. Come to know us, and you'll see why. Current Residents Why UCI? The UCI radiation oncology training program is unique in its ability to cultivate and foster resident education. As a relatively small program, it has the advantage of allowing a great amount of one-on-one instruction from faculty physicians, physicists, researchers, and staff. Learn more Core Competencies The Radiation Oncology Residency program at UCI is designed to graduate a well-balanced physician who possesses the ability and wherewithal to thrive in any practice environment. Learn more Typical Schedule Residents are paired with attending physicians on a 1:1 basis for two-month blocks (note that certain elective or offsite rotations may only be one month, and thus may result in a one month rotation with an attending—however, this is an exception). Learn more Residency Training Program The Department of Radiation Oncology at UCI offers an exceptional residency training program, providing a dynamic environment with renowned faculty, innovative research, advanced technology, and patient-centered cancer care. Overview FAQ Other Program Initiatives Chair's Seminar As the complexity of health care delivery has increased, it has become essential for physicians to understand how individual practices relate to the larger system of care. Familiarity with systems-based practice is continually emphasized throughout the course of residency through interactions with patients, as well with members of the healthcare team. Residents are challenged to better understand the relationship between the patient, the community and the health care system and the impact on health of culture, economics, the environment, health literacy, health policy and advocacy to determine their role within these social and system dynamics. To allow for a more focused instruction, a leadership series led by the Chair is in place to help residents explore concepts such as healthy policy; value-based medicine; billing and reimbursement; contract negotiations; ethics in medicine; quality and safety; and teamwork. Several lectures on the Affordable Care Act allow participants to take a deeper dive into how legislation affects their responsibilities as physicians. The goal of the seminar is to impart residents with a greater understanding of challenges faced by the US healthcare system as it emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic and grapples with an aging population, escalating costs, and the rapid proliferation of new technologies. The varying perspectives of relevant stakeholders in the not-for-profit and for-profit domains are also examined. Guest speakers are frequently invited to present on various leadership topics; and role-playing simulations are utilized to allow for maximal interaction. Research Opportunities The Department expects residents to participate in hypothesis-driven, thematic-based research during training, and all residents are guaranteed 6 to 12 months of research time during the PGY4 year. The specific length of research time afforded each resident will be based on the nature and quality of the proposed research, as determined in advance by the residency program director and chairman. Residents have the discretion of tailoring their research in the form of biological laboratory research, clinical research, or medical physics research under the supervision of a designated mentor. Basic research opportunities will not be limited to radiation research, but will be open to any cancer-related laboratory programs associated within the UCI School of Medicine and Comprehensive Cancer Center. Consideration could be given to the American Board of Radiology (ABR) Holman Pathway for exceptional candidates with a strong background in research. During the allocated research time, residents will specifically be free of all clinical responsibilities and will also not be expected to take call assignments. UCI is recognized as a leader in the burgeoning field of health services research. Opportunities exist for trainees to work with faculty in the Health Policy Research Institute (HPRI) through the Masters of Science in Biomedical and Translational Science (MS-BATS) and the Certificate Program in Clinical Research, which aims to produce leaders and agents for change in diverse settings such as the community, federal and state governments, health care organizations, and academic departments. Residents with an interest in health services research are encouraged to develop careers to that can play an active role in shaping and evaluating policies and programs to improve systems, with particular focus on care for those outside of society's mainstream. Quality Assurance The UCI Radiation Oncology Department believes that the foundation for achieving our goals is to embrace the quality imperative in everything we do. This includes safety and quality in our clinical care and research activities as well as excellence in our educational endeavors and value in our community outreach initiatives. Residents are expected to participate in quality assurance activities throughout training and are an integral part of the department’s commitment to quality assurance and patient safety. In addition to weekly peer-review conferences, a weekly quality assurance meeting (Tuesdays at noon) attended by representatives of all divisions of the Department including nursing, therapy, and dosimetry, occurs on an ongoing basis for purposes of self-evaluation. As mandated by the University of California, residents are required to work with faculty mentors to develop initiatives to promote safety in the workplace through designated radiation oncology clinical quality initiative (CQI) projects, formulated in accordance with the program director and the Graduate Medical Education (GME) staff.