I am trying to find out information regarding ortho oncology. I didnt know there was a fellowship until recently, and I would like to find out as much as possible. ie, what is the typical cases, current job trends, why most ortho residents dont seem too interested in it vs sports/spine, an idea of income vs other ortho specialties, etc
I am a 3rd yr med student interested in ortho, and possible ortho oncology and any information would be much appreciated.
to my understanding Musculoskelatal oncology is a tract that is more Academic and some people want to do the private sect to make money. Plus some places it is a two year fellowship
So I'm going to disagree with nupe1911_md, but based on my limited experience with ortho onc (I rotated as a sub-I on it) it is a very litigious field with poor reimbursement and as a result it generally costs an institution money to have them on staff.
As for the types of cases that we did:
a lot of soft tissue tumors - MFH, liposarcomas, hemangiomas,
rare primary bone tumors, but when they do those cases they are often incredible with extremely interesting reconstructions and prosthesis uses
metastatic bone disease- tough to see cause it was often the presenting symptom for the primary tumor; but once again cool cases
Other things that are good (in my mind):
You have long term relationships with your patients, these often require multiple surgeries and or years of follow-up to watch for recurrence of disease.
You work with patients of many different ages, backgrounds, and personalities.
There are also lots of different types of ortho oncologic diseases and they vary from things with high cure rates to highly fatal, but either way you make a big difference.
It is very academic, intellectual, research driven, and there is a lot of cutting edge technology used.
Hope this helped... and like I said this is based on my limited experience, so don't take my word for it, check it out yourself.
I said it was more acedemic and alot of docs want to go to the private sector, (such as general, hand, sports trauma and spine) and make more money thus Mus onc is a low paying ortho job.[/i]
that's good to know, the one ortho onc guy I worked with led me to believe that it was the other way around. maybe that was just his malpractice insurance, or more likely his perception of it... either way I'm not sure. But it's good to know that is not the case! I really liked the topic and was turned off by that aspect of it.
so thanks for correcting my mistake!
