F. S. Dahdaleh1, J. Tseng1, K. Roggin1, M. Posner1, K. Turaga1 1The University Of Chicago Medicine,Section Of General Surgery/Surgical Oncology,Chicago, IL, USA
Introduction:
Fellowship positions in surgical oncology programs accredited by the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) are competitive with a match rate of 68.6% in 2016. Having recently become an ACGME-accredited fellowship, data on trainee career trajectories is lacking. We sought to describe the practice types and locations of graduates from the 2011 and 2012 fellowship match years.
Methods:
Publicly available SSO match lists from 2011 and 2012 were utilized. Data on trainees’ medical schools, residency training programs, fellowships, and practice types and locations were collected using keyword internet searches. Locations of training and practice were categorized geographically into the Northeast, Midwest, South, West, Canada and other. Pair wise correlation and chi-square tests were used to test for statistical significance.
Results:
106 graduates completed fellowship training at 19 SSO-accredited programs (53 matched in 2011, and 53 in 2012). Sixty-three (67%) were males. The majority of fellows were trained in the Northeast (n=37, 35%), followed by the South (n=28, 26%). Fellows were more likely to hold academic faculty positions (n= 62/101, 61%). This varied significantly among fellowship programs (100% academic to 100% private practice in certain programs, chi-squared 39.08, p<0.001). International medical graduates were equally likely to choose academic practices when compared to US and Canadian graduates (65% vs. 62%, p=0.86). Graduates were more likely to choose a practice location in the same region as their residency program (r2=0.56, p<0.001) or their fellowship program (r2=0.50, p<0.001). Fellows who received their medical degrees, completed residency or fellowship training in the South chose a practice location in the same region (67%, 68%, 63% respectively) more often than those from other geographic areas.
Conclusion:
The majority of graduating SSO-accredited fellows chose to practice in academic settings in locations within the same region as their residency or fellowship programs. This information allows programs and applicants to better understand the growing workforce of surgical oncologists and serves as the first part of our attempt to describe this group.