Duke University Medical Center Breast Fellowship

Durham, North Carolina

Program Director: Jennifer Plichta, MD, MS, FACS

Duke University Medical Center has long been recognized as a premier academic institution and leader in academic surgery. Located in central North Carolina, the Duke Cancer Institute serves as a tertiary referral center for the mid-Atlantic region, drawing patients from Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Across the Duke Health Care system, almost 1200 breast cancers are diagnosed and treated annually.

The Breast Fellowship seeks to educate surgeons in the management of both benign and malignant breast disease. Graduating candidates should be confident in the skills acquired during their fellowship year and be trained to become leaders in either the academic or community setting.

Program Goals

Fellows will achieve competence in the elements of a system-based practice through their daily clinical activities within a complex academic environment over three clinical sites. Daily interaction with medical students and residents occurs in the clinical setting, including the operating room, outpatient clinic, and inpatient ward. In addition, it is anticipated that the fellow will see a broad spectrum of patients from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds enabling them to treat breast disease in multiple different stages. Participation in the multi-disciplinary conference reinforces quality patient care and enhances patient safety.

The fellow will also have opportunities to engage in community activities (i.e. Komen Race for the Cure, patient advocacy day with the Breast Cancer Coalition of North Carolina) and organize affiliated hospital staff to participate in these events. These activities promote breast cancer awareness and research and encourage the development of the fellow’s leadership skills.

Rotations

The rotations emphasize the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to breast cancer treatment and are aimed to provide a strong foundation for the will consist of the following: Breast Surgery (24 weeks), Breast Imaging (4 weeks), High Risk Clinic/Cancer Support Services (4 weeks), Pathology (2 weeks), Research (2 weeks), Plastic Surgery (4 weeks), Medical Oncology (4 weeks), Radiation Oncology (4 weeks).

Courses & Meetings

Regularly scheduled conferences of the Breast Oncology group includes both clinical and research meetings and are presented below. The fellow’s attendance at the following meetings will be mandatory and will be aimed towards training in a multidisciplinary integrated evidence-based approach to the practice of Breast Surgical Oncology:

•  Breast Surgery Fellow Didactic Lecture Series (monthly)
• Multidisciplinary tumor board (weekly)
• New patient review (weekly)
• Hereditary Cancer/Genetics meeting (weekly)
• Research Protocols and Clinical Trials (monthly)
• Breast Surgical Outcomes meeting (monthly)

The Breast Surgery fellow will be granted travel to one national conference during the fellowship year. Goals of the meeting will be to encourage networking, explore new collaborations, and provide career opportunities. The fellow will attend the meeting in conjunction with one of the Duke Breast Surgery faculty who will provide mentorship.

Research

The fellow will be expected to initiate, conduct, and complete a minimum of one, and preferably more than one, research project during the fellowship year. This requirement can be met with research in any of the following areas of investigation:

• Breast Cancer Outcomes
• Review of Surgical Techniques
• Translational Research
• Clinical Trials
• Basic Science
• Decision Science
• Health care policy research

The fellow will have access to a clinical data mart of all patients treated for breast cancer at Duke between 1997-present. A group statistician will be available to help analyze data and can also provide more complex statistical support for data modeling and analysis of SEER/Medicare, the National Cancer Data Base and insurance claims databases.

Eligibility

Candidates must have completed an accredited general surgery residency and be American Board of Surgery eligible. Interviews will take place in the fall the year preceding the Match and one fellow is accepted to the program.

The application materials are the same required by the SSO and uploaded to the SSO website.

Contact Information