SUO Fellowship Programs

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• Institutional: The institutional program is designed for Urology Programs that either have a fellowship program established or would like to apply for one.

SUO Fellowship Programs - Institutional
Instructions | Committee | Requirements | Evaluation | Application

The members of this Society and its Executive Committee believe that standardization of fellowship programs in urologic oncology is needed to assure trainees will receive a superior experience and to achieve a level of expertise that will allow them to coordinate and participate in multi disciplinary care in an academic or private practice setting. Criteria for fellowship programs are reviewed annually. The Fellowship Committee reviews all programs applications and makes recommendations for approval to the Executive Committee. The Fellowship Committee also monitors the quality and accreditation of Urologic Oncology Fellowships.

Instructions
The SUO accredits two year fellowships in urologic oncology. At least 12 months of this time must be devoted to clinical work. The requirements for a fellowship program are specified in the Requirements section of this page.

Programs may apply for accreditation through the SUO Fellowship Committee. The application should be sent to the chairman of the Fellowship Committee as listed on the application. The document should be submitted on a floppy disk and with two signed hard copies.

The application fee is $3,000. This should be included with the application and should be paid with a check drawn on a US dollar account in a United States bank. Make checks payable to the Society of Urology Oncology.

The director of the program applying for accreditation will be contacted by the Fellowship Committee Chairman's office to arrange a site visit. This will be a one day visit by an active SUO member site visitor. The format of the site visit will be similar to a Residency Review Site visit. The site visitor's report and the application form will be reviewed by the SUO Fellowship Committee at its next meeting. Meetings will be held at least annually and more often if the volume of applications justifies the need.

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SUO Fellowship Committee

Chairman
Jeffrey M. Holzbeierlein, MD, FACS
Kansas University Medical Center
3901 Rainbow Blvd., MS-3016
Kansas City, KS  66160
Phone:  913-588-7564 / Fax:  913-588-7625          

Members
Joseph Erik Busby, MD
1530 3rd Avenue S.
FOT 1105
Birmingham, AL  35294
Phone:  205-975-2736
erik.busby@ccc.uab.edu

Jonathan Coleman, MD
Memorial Sloan Kettering
Dept. of Urology
1275 York Avenue
New York, NY  10021
Phone: 646-422-4432
colemaj1@mskcc.org

Michael S. Cookson, MD
Vanderbilt University
A1302 MCN-Dept of Urologic Surgery
1161 21st Avenue S.
Nashville, TN 37232
Phone: 516-322-2101
michael.cookson@vanderbilt.edu

Ashish M. Kamat, MD
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
1515 Holcombe Blvd., Box 446
Houston, TX 77030
Phone: 713-792-3250
akamat@mdanderson.org

Daniel Lin, MD
University of Washington - Department of Urology
P.O. Box 356510
1959 NE Pacific St.
Seattle, WA 98195
Phone: 206-667-1342 / Fax: 206-667-2917
dlin@u.washington.edu

David Peter Wood, Jr. MD
University of Michigan
1500 East Medical Center Drive
3875 Taubman
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Phone:  734-763-9269
davwood@umich.edu

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SOCIETY OF UROLOGIC ONCOLOGY FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

Mission Statement: The goal of an SUO fellowship is to provide additional training above and beyond residency in Urologic Oncology. This training will specifically provide a multidisciplinary exposure to Urologic Oncology and provide an opportunity to spend an extended period of time doing Urologic Oncology research in order to prepare the fellow for a productive career in Urologic Oncology

PROGRAM REQUREMENTS FOR SOCIETY OF UROLOGIC ONCOLOGY (SUO) FELLOWSHIP TRAINING IN UROLOGIC ONCOLOGY

Definition of the Specialty
Urologic oncology is a subspecialty of urology focusing on the evaluation and treatment of patients with malignancies of the genitourinary tract, including the adrenal gland. Specialists in this discipline must demonstrate knowledge of the basic and clinical sciences related to genitourinary malignancies as well as attendant skills in the medical and surgical therapy of these cancers. Fellowship programs must educate fellows in the evaluation and treatment of urologic cancers to include an understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cancer development and progression, urologic cancer pathology, radiation and chemotherapy treatments, surgical management options and supportive care. Education in reconstruction of the genitourinary tract must also be provided. Fellowship programs must provide adequate exposure to the non-surgical disciplines of radiation and medical oncology so that trainees will graduate with knowledge of a multidisciplinary approach to urologic cancer care.

Duration and Scope of Education

• The prerequisite for selection to a urologic oncology fellowship is either completion of an ACGME accredited urology residency program or a similarly accredited international residency program in urology. This training must provide education in all aspects of urology including broad exposure to the evaluation and treatment of urologic malignancies.

• A minimum of 24 months of urologic oncology education is required. This period of education will be divided into 12 months of clinical urologic oncology training and 12 month s of urologic oncology research.

• The clinical training year must provide a broad exposure to routine and complex urologic oncology conditions. This exposure must include education in the multidisciplinary approach to urologic cancer care. This includes exposure to radiation oncology, medical oncology, urologic cancer pathology and supportive care. Fellows must also receive education in the basic science and molecular aspects of urologic cancer.

• Surgical training during the clinical year should include adequate exposure to both minimally invasive and open surgical procedures. Although the ratio of minimally invasive and open surgical experience during this training will vary from program to program, fellows must be provided with a volume of surgical training in both that will allow the graduating fellow to perform both open and minimally invasive surgery with competence. Adequate exposure to complex open surgical procedures will be an important part of this training.

• The research training year may consist of a clinical track or laboratory research, or may include a combination of both. The research year must include at least 80% protected time for conducting research without clinical responsibilities. The research training may vary from program to program, but must provide the fellow with a valuable educational experience that will result in peer-reviewed publications in urologic cancer journals. Research training must also include instruction in evidence-based medicine, clinical trial design, biostatistics and grant writing. Research opportunities may be EITHER in clinical research or basic science research although SUO accredited institutions are encouraged to offer both options.

• If approved by the SUO Fellowship Committee prior to the initiation of fellowship training, the fellow may complete the clinical training year and research year at separate institutions, as long as both training sites are SUO certified programs. The research year cannot be waived for prior research experience regardless of whether this research was done before, during or after urology residency training.

Institutions

One sponsoring institution will assume ultimate responsibility for the fellowship training program and this responsibility extends to the fellow’s assignments at all participating sites. Ideally, the sponsoring institution should be affiliated with an academic medical center. Assignments at participating sites must be of sufficient length to ensure a quality educational experience and should provide the opportunity for continuity of care. Although the number of participating sites may vary from program to program, all participating sites must demonstrate the ability to promote the program goals and have educational rationale for the training of the fellow.

Program Personnel

Program Director

• There must be a single program director with the authority and accountability for the operation of the fellowship program. Program directors must have completed a fellowship in urologic oncology and be an active member of the SUO. Exceptions to this condition for senior members who are recognized as national leaders in the field of urologic oncology will be granted if a fellowship-trained faculty member is not available at the program. If a fellowship-trained faculty member is present at the program, no exception will be made. Senior members requesting an exemption to this rule must be active members of the SUO and attend fellowship director meetings. Additional qualifications of the Program Director must include requisite subspecialty expertise in urologic oncology and documented educational and administrative experience acceptable to the SUO fellowship Committee. Documented clinical and scholarly expertise should be apparent from the Program Director’s curriculum vitae. The program director should continue in his/her position for a length of time adequate to ensure program stability.

• The Program Director must administer and maintain an educational environment conducive to educating urologic oncology fellows. They must oversee and ensure the quality of didactic and clinical education at all sites that participate in the program. On a regular basis, they must also evaluate program faculty and approve the continued participation of the faculty members based on these evaluations. Program Directors are also responsible for the preparation and submission of all information required and requested by the SUO Fellowship Committee, including but not limited to annual program evaluation forms and documentation of each fellow’s academic and clinical experience.

• The Program Director must also ensure that the operative experience performed by fellows is logged accurately. The Program Director will review these logs annually for each fellow. Upon graduation from the fellowship program , the Program Director is responsible for submitting the fellows’ final aggregate log for review by the SUO Fellowship Committee. The Program Director must ensure that the fellow’s surgical experience consists of an adequate volume and variety of cases.

• In order to establish the validity and reliability of the OKAT (Oncology Knowledge Assessment Test) examination, Program Directors or a designated faculty member must take this exam every year. Program Directors must also assure that fellows take this examination each year they are a fellow. For extenuating circumstances a request for a deferment must be submitted to the SUO Fellowship Committee within 6 weeks of the exam. Programs in which the fellow(s) do not take the exam and do not receive an exception will lose accreditation.

• All program Directors are required to attend the Program Directors meeting at the SUO Winter Meeting at least every year. If the Program Director is unable to attend they may send a representative from their program on their behalf.

Urologic Oncology Faculty

• At each participating site, there must be a sufficient number of faculty members with documented qualifications in urologic oncology to instruct and supervise all of the fellows at that location. The program faculty must devote sufficient time to the educational program to fulfill their supervisory and teaching responsibilities. They must administer and maintain an educational environment conducive to educating urologic oncology fellows. The faculty must establish and maintain an environment of inquiry and scholarship with an active research component. To provide a diverse educational experience, faculty members should have subspecialty education and concentrate their practice in varied urologic oncology domains. The faculty must regularly participate in organized clinical discussions, rounds, journal clubs and conferences. Some members of the faculty must demonstrate scholarly activity by peer-reviewed funding, publication of original research or review articles in peer review journals and/or participation in local, regional and national professional and scientific meetings.

• There must be at least two urologic oncology faculty members devoting sufficient time to supervise and teach fellows, and who are committed completely to the educational objectives of the fellowship program. A faculty:fellow ratio of at least 2:1 in the total program is required. The Program Director may be included in determining the ratio. The Program Director must inform the SUO Fellowship Committee if the number of urologic oncology faculty members drops below three or if the ratio falls below 2:1 and remains below that level for longer than one year. Faculty must be practicing urologists, not from another discipline.

Other Program Faculty

The fellowship training program must include faculty members with expertise in non-surgical disciplines related to urologic cancer care. These include faculty with expertise in medical oncology, radiation oncology and urologic cancer pathology. These faculty members must devote a sufficient amount of time to the educational program including direct interaction with the fellow in both clinical and academic settings. Non-surgical faculty must also participate in multidisciplinary conferences or clinics and contribute to the fellow’s didactic education.

Educational Program

• The fellowship curriculum must contain the overall educational goals of the program which must be distributed to the fellows and faculty annually. There should be regularly scheduled didactic sessions that the fellows attend. The curriculum should also delineate the fellow’s responsibilities for patient care, progressive responsibility of patient management and continuity of care.

• Fellows must demonstrate knowledge of established and evolving urologic oncology concepts as well as application of these to patient care. Fellows must have didactic instruction that includes the core clinical domains of urologic oncology including: prostate cancer, bladder cancer, renal cancer, penile cancer, testicular cancer, radiation oncology, medical oncology, urologic oncology pathology and urologic cancer imaging. Fellows must also receive instruction in the surgical techniques associated with performing complex open urologic cancer surgery, minimally invasive surgery (including robotic surgery) and the endourologic evaluation and treatment of genitourinary tract malignancies.

• During the research experience, the fellowship curriculum must provide for exposure to and instruction in the basic principles of research design, evidence-based medicine, biostatistics and grant writing strategies. They must also be familiar with how research is conducted, evaluated, explained to patients and applied to patient care. Fellowship participation in scholarly activities must be documented by manuscript preparation, lectures or presentations, teaching activities and the active performance of clinical and/or laboratory research. The research year must include at least 80% protected time from clinical duties to allow a productive research experience.

Fellow Evaluation

The fellowship Program Director and faculty must evaluate fellow performance in a timely manner after educational assignments and document these evaluations at the completion of their fellowship training. As an important part of fellowship evaluation, the fellow must take the OKAT examination during each year of their fellowship. All programs reserve the right not to put a fellow’s name forward for SUO accreditation with supporting evidence as to why the fellow is not sufficient for SUO accreditation. Fellows may consider an appeal to the SUO Fellowship Committee and each case will be considered individually.

Program Application and Selection of Fellows

Initial program application

• SUO approved fellowship program applications are available on the SUO website. This application is completed by the program and program director and submitted with the required application fee of $3,000. A site reviewer will be identified and a site visit will then be arranged after review of the application by the SUO Fellowship Committee. Please note that once a site reviewer has been identified, it is the responsibility of the Program Director to contact the reviewer to make arrangements for the visit. Following completion of the site visit, a report will be created and distributed to Fellowship Committee members for review. Site reviews are confidential and will not be supplied to Programs, although if a program is not approved a letter detailing the concerns of the SUO Fellowship Committee will be sent to the Program Director.

• The Fellowship Committee will meet on a biannual basis at the AUA annual meeting and at the winter SUO meeting. At these meeting, programs who have submitted applications and have had their site visit completed will be reviewed for approval by the Fellowship Committee. In order to be considered for approval, new programs must have had their site visit within the period between these meetings and must have addressed any site review requests or concerns prior to this meeting. Recommendations for approval/denial will be made by the Fellowship Committee and sent to the SUO Executive Committee for final approval.

• Initial program certification will be granted for a period of five years. After the five year period, programs will be required to complete a recertification application that will be reviewed by the Fellowship Committee at the AUA and SUO winter meetings. This application must be submitted along with a check for the required $1,000 recertification fee. Programs that raise concern after Fellowship Committee review will require a recertification site visit. Programs that lose their certification will have to wait for two years before they can reapply.

Selecting Fellows – SUO Fellowship Match Program

• All SUO certified fellowship programs are required to participate in the SUO match administered by the American Urological Association (AUA). Each fellowship program will be approved for selection of a set number of fellows per year in this match. A program’s educational resources and clinical volume must be sufficient to support the number of fellows appointed to the program. The Program Director must not appoint more fellows than approved by the SUO Fellowship Committee unless otherwise approved by the committee.

• Programs may choose to sit out of the match for a particular year. However, if they choose to sit out of the match and accept a fellow outside of the match, that fellow will not be eligible for SUO certification. Programs that take a fellow outside of the match without prior approval of the SUO Fellowship Committee will lose SUO certification. If fellowship programs do not participate in the match for two consecutive years, or fail to match a fellow for three consecutive years, they will lose their SUO certification.

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Evaluation

Trainee Evaluation

Faculty Evaluation
Teaching faculty of the fellowship program must also be evaluated by the trainee(s) on a semiannual basis and this evaluation should include teaching ability and commitment, clinical knowledge, and scholarly contributions. This information will be filed by the Program Director and used as a reference for subsequent re-accreditation

Program Evaluation
There should be documented evidence of periodic self-evaluation of the program in relation to the educational goals, the needs of the trainees, and the teaching responsibilities of the faculty. This evaluation should include an assessment of the balance between the educational and service components of the program. Records of such evaluations should be available to the site visit team at the time of re-accreditation

Notification of Accreditation Status
Action on accreditation will be reported to the program director by a formal letter of notification from SUO Fellowship Committee. Fellows in a program should be aware of the accreditation status of the program and must be notified of any change in the accreditation status.

Appeals Process
Appeal of the committee's decision on accreditation should be made in writing within two months of receipt of the committee's letter. The appeal will be reviewed by the Executive Committee of the SUO which will render a decision by majority vote.

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Application
Please submit applications to:

Society of Urologic Oncology
Urologic Oncology Fellowship Program
c/o Mary Tully
Two Woodfield Lake
1100 E. Woodfield Road, Suite #520
Schaumburg, IL 60173

Click here to download the application (.doc) | Click here to download the application (.pdf)

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