Name:	Dr John Matthews
Title:	Program Director
E-mail:	matthewj@queensu.ca
Phone:	(613) 533-6329
Name:	Sandra Dudley
Title:	Program Assistant
E-mail:	dudleys@queensu.ca
Phone:	(613) 533-6329 or (613) 533-6000 x77848

Eligible candidates are those who qualify for Ontario Ministry of Health funding as PG4-6. Please visit the Provincial Eligibility Guidelines for Ontario (on the CaRMS website). All eligible candidates who are interested in Hematology are invited to apply.

Applicants must be able to commence training within 1 month of July 1, 2012.

Document	Mandatory	Optional
Medical school transcript	X
Reference letter Number of letters: 3 One must be from current Program Director.	X
Personal letter Why they are applying to the Queen's Hematology Program.	X
Curriculum Vitae	X
MCCEE	X
MCCQEI	X
MCCQEII	X

Applications submitted after the file review has opened on August 24, 2011 :

- will be considered

References and other supporting documents which arrive after the file review has opened on August 24, 2011

- will be considered (so long as time permits.)

Date(s) of Interview: October 4, 2011

Invitation/ Notification Information: Only applicants who are offered an interview will be contacted (by email).

Details regarding Interview:

Interviews will be offered to Applicants who the Selection Committee considers to have adequate merit, based on review of the application file.

Applicants will be ranked for offers by the selection committee on the basis of merit and goodness of fit with the learning environment of the Program. The application file and interview will be used to make these determinations. If the applicant has been assigned to a Hematology rotation at Queen’s in the past, the evaluation from that rotation may also be taken into account. Applicants with incomplete documentation and applicants without interviews will not be ranked.

The highlights of the Queen’s Adult Hematology Training Program include:

• Learning environment – “Big” learning in a “Small” Program: The core teaching faculty is a small group of friendly Hematologists and Hematopathologists who work well together. Residents and faculty get to know each other, and the resulting relationship is more collegial than hierarchal. “Small” programs like ours in small cities like Kingston are attractive to some residents and not to others, but “Big” learning occurs in our “Small” program. In addition to a full academic curriculum, we have plenty of patient volume. There are only a few community hematologists in our catchment area, so we see the full spectrum of referrals from common primary care hematologic problems to more complex tertiary care problems. Furthermore, all tertiary care Hematology in our region comes to only one hospital, KGH, where all of the residents are when they are in Kingston. There are no missed learning opportunities because the patient ended up at another hospital. At KGH, we do everything in Adult Hematology except allogeneic transplant; rotations in allo-transplant and Pediatric Hematology are done in Toronto (or occasionally Ottawa for allo-transplant).
  
  
• Resident Clinic: New patient consults and longitudinal follow-up continues across rotations (except for out-of-town rotations). Since the Resident Clinic and all Kingston rotations occur at the same site (KGH), the clinic is easily integrated into the weekly routine, without need for cross-town travel.
  
  
• Community Hematology Rotation: This is a recent addition to the curriculum, but has been highly successful. The rotation is based in Kitchener, Ontario, where everything except for transplant is done. This rotation hones your Hematology consultancy skills, and is valuable regardless of whether a community or academic practice is pursued after residency.
  
  
• Morphology Training: We have prided ourselves in providing excellent laboratory training, particularly morphology skills, thanks to our Hematopathologists, who provide much one-on-one teaching at the microscope.

This is a two year program. Each year of training is comprised of 13 blocks, with each block lasting four weeks. The breakdown of rotations is shown in the table below.

Rotation	# of Blocks	Year	Location
Clinics and Consults	7	1 and 2	Kingston General Hospital (includes Cancer Center of Southeastern Ontario)
Ward (includes autologous stem cell transplant)	2	1	Kingston General Hospital
Ward – Jr. Attending	3	2	Kingston General Hospital
Community Hematology	1	2	Kitchener, Ontario
Allo-transplant	2	2	Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto or Ottawa General Hospital, Ottawa
Paediatric Hematology	1	2	Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
Lab – Morphology	3	1	Kingston General Hospital
Lab – Ancillary Diagnostics	1	1	Kingston General Hospital
Lab – Hemostasis	1	1	Kingston General Hospital
Lab – Transfusion Medicine	1	1	Kingston General Hospital
Lab – Jr. Attending	1	2	Kingston General Hospital
Research/Elective	3	1 and 2	(flexible)

Resident Clinic

The Resident Clinic is a weekly half-day clinic that runs continuously across the two years, concurrent with other rotations. Each resident will have assigned new patients who she/he will follow longitudinally. It also serves as a follow-up clinic for discharged inpatients seen by residents on the Consult or Ward service. Attendance by each resident is continuous, except when away for out-of-town rotations.

Research

The trainee will decide upon a Hematology research project in discussion with the Research Director early in the program, which will be carried out over the remainder of the time. There are 3 protected rotation blocks that are dedicated to research/elective. The trainee will be expected at to present at a research forum, either locally (the Department of Medicine research day), or nationally or internationally. The research supervisor may be Queen's faculty or a faculty member at another academic institution. In addition, the trainee will conduct a Quality Assurance project during the laboratory rotations.

Educational activities

• Hematology Conference/Rounds: A weekly noon round where trainees present cases and topics. Bring your lunch.
• Hematology Journal Club: Yes, critical appraisal can be both educational and entertaining! Every other week journal articles are presented, critiqued, and discussed by a rotation of attendings and trainees. You never know what the attendings are going to say at Journal Club.
• Hematology Academic Half Day : Weekly, including a Pathology and a Clinical presentation.
• Hematology Case Seminar: case-based review and discussion of a topic, every 3 weeks, presented by trainees.
• Hematopathology Seminar: a weekly hematopathology teaching session presented by the hematopathology attendings and trainees on their lab rotations.
• Lymphoma Histology: held weekly at the multihead microscope, Dr. Lebrun
• Lymphoma Conference (tumor board): held twice monthly, this is a multidisciplinary forum to discuss the management of lymphoma patients, attended by Hematologists, Medical Oncologists, Radiation Oncology, Pathology, and Radiology.
• Hematopathology Slide Conference: When the lights go down, be prepared to be quizzed. This is a weekly presentation of hematological morphology from current cases, with clinical correlation and discussion. Flame retardant clothing provided.
• Practice exam: Each spring there is mock Royal College-style examination at Queen’s consisting of three sections: glass microscope slides, written exam, and oral exam. Trainees are also encouraged to attend the excellent Practice Exam at U-of-T each summer.
• Epidemiology series - Dr. Ralph Meyer gives an excellent series of informal sessions on clinical trials methodology/critical appraisal.
• U of T Monthly Transfusion Rounds - by video conference, with a great list of speakers.
• ASH conference: Trainees are strongly encouraged to attend the ASH meeting each year. Funding is provided.
• Other: medical oncology academic half-day (the relevant sessions), Med Onc Pharmacology Lecture Series, Medical Oncology Lecture Series, Medical Grand Rounds, Medical Mortality conference.

Call

Home call is carried out one night per week and one weekend in four. Routine ward on-call issues are managed by the in-hospital PGY1. The Hematology Resident provides back-up for the on-call PGY1 and takes front-line responsibility for Hematology consults from the hospital and telephone calls from the region. Back-up is provided by attendings in both Hematology and Medical Oncology. On weekends, the Hematology Resident will round on the inpatients on the Hematology and Medical Oncology wards.

Primary Site:

Kingston General Hospital (including the Cancer Center of Southeastern Ontario)

Other Sites:

Allo-transplant: Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto (Mandatory rotation)
Pediatric Hematology: Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto (Mandatory rotation)
Community Hematology: Kitchener, Ontario (Mandatory rotation)