Medical Oncology Resident Resources

Welcome to the Medical Oncology Training Program (MOTP) at the University of Toronto.

Our residency program is designed to foster clinical and academic excellence while providing an advanced understanding of our field and its central role in cancer patient care. Our academic community provides a supportive environment ideal for learning and thriving. Residents will graduate with the full skill-set necessary to begin their career as Medical Oncologists.

The University of Toronto, Medical Oncology Program collaborates with undergraduate medical education in many ways. Our faculty are involved in all aspects of teaching and mentorship of medical students. These wonderful mentors, teachers, researchers and clinicians are passionate about education and committed to the highest quality of patient care.

Medical Oncology is a popular elective among medical students and many residents in our program “discovered” oncology while doing clinical or research electives as medical students. At the pre-clerkship level, our faculty deliver lectures, teach clinical skills courses, offer clinical observerships, and lead small group seminars. At the clerkship level, our program hosts clerks for 2-4 week electives in medical oncology.

Our MOTP residents play a key role in the teaching of medical students both in clinic and inpatient consultation review. For residents who are interested in teaching, plenty of opportunities exist to be involved in UGME such as serving as a clinical skills tutor or being a mentor in a longitudinal academic mentorship program for medical students.

Additionally, many MOTP residents are involved in research projects supervised by world-renown oncologists. This provides an important opportunity for sharpening research skills while also fostering early 1:1 mentorship relationships with faculty within our division. Resident projects stemming from this opportunity have led to publications in high-impact medical journals and invitations to present posters at international and local conferences – including our own Medical Oncology Annual Research Day held in June each year.

Please be sure to browse the wealth of resources on this page, compiled with the help of Dr. Mary Mahler (current MOTP Co-Chief Resident) and Dr. Lawson Eng (MOTP Graduate). If you have further questions about our program, please do not hesitate to contact me or the Program Administrator, Walaa.Kheir@uhn.ca.

We look forward to meeting you!

Dr. Raymond Jang
Program Director, Medical Oncology Training Program
University of Toronto
Raymond.jang@uhn.ca

Our friends in the Division of Emergency Medicine have shared this great little map of some favourite spots around the city. While you’re here make sure you visit some of the sights and see what Toronto is like outside of the hospitals.

Direct link to Map

Ways to find out more about our program

	Dr. Raymond Jang,  Program Director, MOTP raymond.jang@uhn.ca
	Walaa Kheir,  Program Administrator, MOTP    walaa.kheir@uhn.ca

• Core Rotations
• Electives
• Call Requirements

Core Training

The University of Toronto’s Medical Oncology Training Program (MOTP) offers a two-year training program focusing on the management of solid-tumours. In addition, it provides balanced exposure to hematologic malignancies, bone marrow transplantation, radiation oncology and palliative care. 

Over the two years, residents rotate through five different cancer centres: Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Hospital/Odette Cancer Centre, Mount Sinai Hospital, St. Michael’s Hospital and Credit Valley Hospital. These various rotations allow broad exposure to the practice of oncology both at the academic as well as community level. 

Throughout the program, residents have a longitudinal clinic that they do continuously for the two years. This allows residents to gain autonomy and aids in eventual transition to independent practice. 

PGY-4 Year 

Residents’ first year in the MOTP is split into two 6 block rotations spending half of the year at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and the other half at Sunnybrook Hospital/Odette Cancer Centre. During both of these rotations, residents spend the majority of their time in solid tumour clinics. For 6 blocks they will also have 1 hematology clinic per week. For 3 blocks they will have a weekly radiation oncology clinic and for 3 blocks they will have a weekly palliative care clinic. Lastly, one block of the year is dedicated to a research month that is further explained on the research page. Below is a sample schedule.

In addition to the above, residents spend 1 week of the year in the leukaemia rapid assessment clinic and 1 week on the medical oncology ward. 

PGY-5 Year

The second year of the MOTP offers a much more flexible schedule, allowing for personalization.  Mandatory rotations include a 3 block rotation at Mount Sinai Hospital and 3 blocks at Credit Valley Hospital. In addition, 1 block is spent at St. Michael’s hospital. The remainder of the year is composed of 6 elective blocks.  Below is a sample schedule. 

Electives

Electives are a chance for residents to personalize their training to best meet their future ambitions.

There are no limitations on the location of clinical electives as there are no mandatory call requirements during PGY5. Many past residents have pursued local, national, and international electives.

In addition to clinical electives, part of the 6 blocks can be taken as research electives.
 

Calls

PGY-4

During PGY-4 year, residents are expected to take call at the hospital they are currently rotating at. This works out to 6 blocks of call at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Sunnybrook Hospital/Odette Cancer Centre respectively. Calls generally consists of 3 calls per month. Monday-Friday calls consist of ward coverage from 5pm to the following morning. Saturday and Sunday calls are 24hours and entail rounding on inpatients. There is no call during the PGY4 research block.

At Sunnybrook Hospital/Odette Cancer Centre, residents exclusively cover solid tumour patients. As patients are able to be directly admitted from the emergency department, you are expected to manage admissions, transfers, and ward issues over night. This is technically home-call however, there is an in-house call room available as well.

At Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, residents cover both solid tumour patients as well as the autologous stem cell transplant ward. There are no emergency department admissions from this call as all patients present to Toronto General Hospital across the street. That being said, patients can be directly admitted from clinic or have a planned admission for treatment purposes. This is in-house call.

PGY-5

The only mandatory call during PGY-5 is 1 week of at-home call during the Credit Valley Hospital rotation.

There are additional call options available for stipend pay at several of the training locations however these are not mandatory.

• Academic Half Day
• Case-Based Learning
• Journal Club
• Orientation Week

Academic Half Day Every Tuesday morning is dedicated academic time for all residents.  This previously involved breakfast together and a morning of didactic lectures, however, the pandemic has forced us to revamp this structure.  Currently, all academic half days are held virtually. Given that attention spans can fade quickly with virtual learning, we have limited it to 2 hours of didactic lectures each academic half day. The remainder of the morning is for residents’ independent learning and other academic endeavours.
Case-Based Learning Every Wednesday morning from 8-9am, there is case-based learning. These cases are chosen to fit with the content from academic half day that week. They can be structured slightly differently depending on the staff facilitating, however, they are meant to be interactive and informal. In addition, they are generally pragmatic and highly praised by the residents. During the pandemic, these are being held virtually.
Journal Club Journal Club dinners are held monthly at some of the best restaurants around Toronto (hosted by the MOTP). They are facilitated by staff chosen by the residents and cover some of the most recent practice changing papers.
Orientation Week Every year, the program holds an orientation week during the first week of July. This allows residents a chance to get to know each other before embarking on their clinical duties. It also allows for a crash course in some of the most common disease sites, treatment complications and research basics. In addition, there is time allotted for residents to register at the various hospitals and get access to the computer systems. This unique aspect of the Toronto Medical Oncology Training Program makes the transition seamless.

• Resident Research Month
• Resident QI Project
• Research Travel Funding 

Resident Research Month

Coming soon.

Resident QI Project

Coming soon.

Research Travel Funding 

Coming soon.

Coming soon.

Coming soon.

Coming soon.

• ASCO eLearning
• Oncology Education

• Elective request form
• Reimbursement forms

Coming soon.