The Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellowship Program at the University of Washington is a 3-year training program that prepares physicians to become leaders in the field of pediatric hematology, oncology, and bone marrow transplant. The alliance of Seattle Children’s Hospital, the University of Washington Medical Center, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center means fellows have access to some of the finest research and patient care institutions in the world. The fellowship is fully-funded by a NIH T32 training grant and institutional sources. Additional support is available to enable successful fellows to continue at a junior faculty level for an additional year with protected research time. The majority of our fellows pursue careers in academic medicine, including clinical, epidemiological, translational or laboratory-based research.
Year 1
The first year of the program is focused on clinical training and includes rotations on the inpatient oncology service, outpatient hematology and oncology services, and inpatient and outpatient bone marrow transplant services. Sites of clinical rotations include Seattle Children’s hospital, UW medical center (radiation oncology), and the Odessa Brown children’s clinic (sickle cell disease clinic). Fellows maintain an ongoing continuity clinic one half day a week where they develop a cohort of patients for which they are primarily responsible. Fellows also have a one-month elective rotation to gain additional training in laboratory medicine, radiation oncology, pathology, and other areas of interest. During this block fellows have flexibility to meet with potential mentors for their scholarly research in years 2 and 3
Years 2-3
The second and third years of the program are devoted to scholarly research, with reduced clinical responsibilities. Fellows maintain their continuity clinic throughout their fellowship. They also spend one month as a ‘junior attending’ in their 3rd year, either on the inpatient transplant or hematology-oncology services, designed to facilitate their transition to the responsibilities of attending.
Learning throughout fellowship blends didactics with interactive teaching and self study. Regularly occurring conferences include:
Fellows take call from home with decreasing frequency from years 1 to years 2 and 3. There is no in-house call, however fellows are expected to return to the hospital to evaluate and direct management of patients with suspected new cancer diagnoses. Fellows take calls from the families of our patients as well as referring community physicians who seek consultation after 5 pm or on weekends. We have an inpatient hospitalist service that provides in-house management of inpatients and transplant patients and supervises the on call pediatric residents.
Seattle Children’s Hospital serves as the pediatric and adolescent academic medical referral center for Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. Seattle Children’s Hospital has partnered with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and the University of Washington to offer a full range of services for children with hematologic and oncologic disorders.
We diagnose about 250 pediatric patients with oncologic disorders and perform approximately 75 hematopoietic stem cell transplants each year. Our inpatient oncology unit has 60 beds. U.S. News & World Report magazine has ranked Seattle Children’s Hospital among the nation’s top children’s hospitals every year since it began ranking medical facilities more than 25 years ago.
Seattle Children’s hospital participates in a number of research consortiums including the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), Phase I consortium, New Approaches to Neuroblastoma (NANT), Therapeutic Advances in Childhood Leukemia (TACL), Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium (PBTC), Pediatric Oncology Experimental Therapeutics Investigators Consortium (POETIC), and the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN). Investigator initiated research studies include cell immunotherapy, tumor paint studies, and hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Seattle children’s hospital consistently ranks in the top 5 for patient enrollment in clinical trials.
Children’s serves as the primary teaching, clinical and research site for the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Medical students and residents regularly rotate on the Hematology/Oncology service.
We offer a variety of specialized programs to provide multidisciplinary care for our complex patients.
In order to meet our fellows’ unique career development goals, we develop an individualized research program for each; this includes ongoing mentorship regarding research projects, timelines for manuscript and grant development, as well as targeted career development seminars. All fellows participate in regular works-in-progress presentations within their laboratory or clinical research teams.
Fellows participate in at least 2 years of scholarly work. The fellowship program offers a diverse array of research opportunities. Our trainees have the option to pursue research projects with mentors from the Seattle Clinical Research Institute, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and the University of Washington. Fellows may choose mentors from within and outside the division, and co-mentored research projects are common, facilitated by the highly collabortive scientific environment of our partner institutions. Each fellow will have a Scholarship Oversight Committee to guide them through their research project. Fellows are encouraged to present their work at meetings and to apply for grant funding to support continuation of their research beyond their fellowship. Fellows with a strong laboratory or translational research focus without a prior PhD degree can choose to pursue PhD training during fellowship as part of the Molecular Medicine and Mechanisms of Disease (M3D) PhD Program.
Laboratory and Translational Research opportunities at Seattle Children’s Research Institute include:
Research opportunities at the Fred Hutch are housed within five scientific divisions, offering a unique and highly collaborative scientific environment:
The University of Washington Medical Center also offers a full slate of basic and translational science research opportunities. Faculty in the Pediatric Hematology-Oncology division have active scientific collaborations with numerous other divisions, partner institutions, and consortiums at the University of Washington, providing a wealth of research opportunities for trainees.
Fellows interested in clinical or outcomes research may pursue careers in epidemiology and public health, survivorship and outcomes, global health, health equity, bioethics, and palliative care. Our clinical research track (CR track) is well-established and includes specialized mentorship from research leaders in these fields. Fellows on the CR track are encouraged to enroll in Master’s Degree programs at the University of Washington (e.g., in the School of Public Health). Just as with the laboratory research opportunities, the CR track includes a wealth of focused research training opportunities from Fred Hutch, The University of Washington, and SCRI.
We believe that the diversity of our fellows, residents, medical students, staff and faculty is a fundamental element of our ability to ensure that all our patients and families receive the highest-quality care – no matter their race, ethnicity, language, literacy, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability or finances. Our objective is to create a community that encourages participation and connection, and that values and includes each individual's unique contribution, in every aspect of our mission and practice.
Diversity, equity, inclusion, and bias training are critical aspects of our program, formally integrated into our humanism curriculum as well as in research and clinical practices at the University of Washington, Seattle Children's, and the Fred Hutch. The UW Network of Underrepresented Residents & Fellows, sponsored by the UW Graduate Medical Education Office and the Office of Healthcare Equity, aims to promote cultural diversity in medicine through community involvement, education, advocacy, policy, mentorship, professional networking and recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities in medicine. The Fred Hutch Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Core coordinates and facilitates diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in research, workforce development, workplace culture and climate, and community development. Seattle Children's Center for Diversity and Health Equity aims to promote health equity by identifying and addressing determinants of inequities in healthcare, creating equitable research participation opportunities for diverse communities, funding support for research projects and research teams that focus on health equity issues, and fostering equitable career pathways for diverse faculty and staff.
Our division and fellowship program are dedicated to increasing diversity in the field of pediatric hematology-oncology by sponsoring clinical and research training opportunities for students and residents from backgrounds that are historically underrepresented in medicine and biomedical sciences. Opportunities include UW/Seattle Children's Funded Visiting Electives for Underrepresented Minority Medical Students, the Fred Hutch Pathways Undergraduate Resarch Program, Summer High School Internship Program and Summer Undergraduate Research Programs, and the Seattle Children's Research Institute Summer Scholars Program and Invent at Seattle Children’s Postdoctoral Scholars Program. Our faculty and fellows are active participants as mentors in these programs. Students and residents interested in a career in pediatric hematology-oncology or biomedical research are encouraged to contact us to facilitate identifying faculty sponsors in our division for participation in these programs.
We are one of the longest standing NCI-funded pediatric training programs. Our Fellowship Program is funded by a T32 training grant from the National Cancer Institute. The initial year of fellowship funding and funding required beyond that supported by the T32 training grant are provided through institutional sources and the generosity of the Kiwanis Childhood Cancer Program.
Additional support is available to enable successful fellows to continue at a junior faculty level for an additional year with protected research time. Graduates of our program are also eligible for funding to continue their research through an internal NIH/NCI K12 Career Development in Pediatric and Medical Oncology Award. Our fellows are also highly successful in securing extramural career development grants as a transition to independent faculty positions as physician-scientists and clinician-scholars. Recent awards include those from the NIH (K08 Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award, NIH Loan Repayment), ASCO Conquer Cancer, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, St. Baldrick’s Foundation, SRI Clinical Scholars, Childhood Brain Tumor Foundation, Damon Runyon, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Hyundai Hope on Wheels Foundation, the American Society of Hematology Scholars, Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and Children's Cancer Research Fund.
Applications for the 2024-2027 fellowship class will open summer of 2023.
NOTE: Due to the number of positions in our program supported by an NIH NCI T32 training grant, the majority of our trainees must be U.S. citizens or green card holders. We will consider applications from J-1 and H1B visa-holders, but those positions are limited.
Applications for the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology fellowship program must be made through ERAS.
We require a minimum of three letters of recommendation with one to come from your residency program director and request that your personal statement be one page in length and describe your career goals. Applicants must also register with the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP).
Please be sure all requested materials are part of your ERAS file at the time you submit your application to ERAS so the reviewers will have access to complete information about you.
Please submit questions to Lanie Cuerva.