I'm just not sure anything like that ever happened in specialty surg.Ĭlick to expand.I know this will be an unpopular take. I knew there were not enough jobs commensurate to these CVs. In 2012, there were single programs with multiple Rhodes Scholars in them.
Ten years later, the field is rejecting no one (truly pathologic) and scrambling for bodies. In the span of roughly 10 years, radonc went from a specialty where any reasonable US medstud had a shot at a good program and good programs were sometimes taking US born IMGs, to a an environment where roughly 10 students from Harvard were applying for radonc and every serious applicant at top 10 programs was an award winning student. These fields have decades now of being selective enough to reject good applicants every year but demanding enough that interest is relatively predictable. I do wonder if the the general interest and quality of applicants is specialty surgery ever changed as rapidly and drastically as it did in radonc? My premise is that the intrinsic difficulty of doing surgery safely acts as a buffer to rapid or volatile changes in medstud interest. The fact is, doing radiation oncology is easier than doing surgery. I remember multiple fellows who did residency from less prestigious hospitals, complaining that the OR volume that the residents were seeing in fancy academic place A were insufficient. I grew up (professionally) after the initial limits on residency hours took place (which NS managed to lobby to retain 100 hour work weeks, imagine!) I remember transplant fellows and the like working so ridiculously hard to pick up volume in cases. From the outside, the emphasis on case load has always seemed much more important to the powers that be in surgery.
Serve as a collaborative hub for research on gender and inclusion issues within radiation oncology and the medical field.Also, totally agree with you. Providing mentorship for women and gender minorities at all stages of training in both medical physics and physician roles as well as increase awareness of radiation oncology in the STEM pipeline. SWRO aims to achieve its mission of improving gender equity and inclusion in radiation oncology through the following four domains:Īdvocating for empowerment of women and gender minorities through provision of educational sessions and applicable resourcesīuilding community through social media campaigns, informal virtual networking events, and in-person socials at major conferences
We are a group of women, gender minorities, and allies in gender equity dedicated to championing gender equality in oncology, acknowledging the specific challenges of women, and removing barriers to the advancement of women and gender minorities in professional and academic settings. SWRO will provide a forum to support trainees and faculty who are working to build connections with established women or gender minorities in radiation oncology through sponsorship at all levels. We recognize that many women and gender minorities lack strong and relatable role models in their training or work environment and SWRO was established to fill this gap.
We aim to increase representation and provide networking, research and mentoring, opportunities for women focusing on career development and the steep transition into leadership roles in our field. The Society for Women in Radiation Oncology (SWRO) was established as an organization to provide a platform to promote women and gender minorities in the field of radiation oncology.