Director’s Message
Welcome. We greatly appreciate your interest in the Hematology and Medical Oncology Fellowship training program at the University of Missouri.
Training in oncology and hematology is essential to medical students and house staff in many disciplines as cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the United States. As one of the few academic medical centers with a free-standing cancer hospital, Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, we have the opportunity to further the education of students, house staff and fellows in an environment dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
Our training program
Our three-year ACGME-approved training program accepts three graduates every year through a rigorous and highly competitive process. The training involves a minimum of 18 months of clinical training, of which at least six months is dedicated to benign hematology. Fellows can observe patients with a wide variety of neoplastic and hematologic diseases at Ellis Fischel while also being able to participate in multiple clinical and basic research programs. Fellows do their transplant training at SSM Health St. Louis University. However, a new blood and marrow transplant center is being established in Columbia to provide the entire training at one site. Plans to have clinics at the nearby Harry S. Truman Veterans’ Hospital are being considered, which would further enrich and expand the training experience for senior fellows.
The disciplines of hematology and oncology are now evolving faster than ever. To manage the changing landscape of therapeutics, we have site- and system-specific faculty covering benign hematology, malignant hematology and solid tumors in focused clinics at the cancer center. Medical oncology clinics include breast, GI/GU, thoracic, and head and neck. Benign hematology clinics will include the sickle cell disease and anemia clinic, thrombophilia clinic and hemophilia clinic. Training is further augmented with both a primary inpatient service as well as a consultative service at the 614-bed University Hospital connected to the cancer center. The program is therefore very comprehensive, as evidenced by our trainees having gone on to join successful academic and community practices.
Our primary teaching hospital, Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, was the first state cancer center west of the Mississippi when it was established in 1940. Now a part of University of Missouri Health Care, the cancer hospital is currently housed in an eight-floor patient tower that was completed in 2012, bringing all relevant subspecialties including radiation oncology, surgical oncology and gynecological oncology under one roof. The new building is state of the art, with 90 private rooms having “smart room” technology that wirelessly integrates medical consoles and devices into the hospital’s electronic medical record, allowing seamless data management.
University of Missouri’s unique strengths
Ellis Fischel is part of University of Missouri Health Care and is situated on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia, Missouri, which includes colleges of veterinary medicine, agriculture and engineering. The university is also home to the most powerful university research reactor in the United States. The MU Research Reactor facility enables research across many disciplines and is the sole U.S. provider of several important radioisotopes used in radiopharmaceuticals. In addition, Ellis Fischel is also just a few steps away from the new Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health building, which houses a statewide initiative to provide the facilities and resources needed to integrate multidisciplinary laboratory space with advanced analytical instrumentation, computational processing, and pilot-scale manufacturing to create a comprehensive precision health research pipeline that encompasses the entire University of Missouri System.
Our fellowship therefore provides candidates with a rich learning environment with comprehensive clinical training along with multiple avenues for research, including precision therapeutics work. If you have any further questions about the program, please contact Program Coordinator Lisa Rodgers at 573-884-7561 or lrodgers@health.missouri.edu.
Thank you again for your interest in our fellowship,
Kushal Naha, MD
Program Director
Hematology and Medical Oncology Fellowship
How to apply
If you are interested in applying for a hematology/oncology fellowship position, please use the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). We will be accepting applications through ERAS beginning July 15 ending in August 15. Any applications or components of an application (including letters of recommendation, transcripts, test scores, etc.) not received in full by our cutoff date, will not be considered. Completion of a three year U.S. residency and three letters of recommendation are required. We also participate in the Match.
