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Published on: February 28, 2014
Oncology education in Canadian undergraduate and postgraduate training programs
Winson Y Cheung1, Paula N Fishman, Sunil Verma
1Department of Medical Oncology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Background:
We evaluated the quality of oncology education in undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) training programs.
Methods:
We surveyed UG schools in medicine, nursing, and pharmacy as well as PG residencies in family and internal medicine to assess the programs' oncology content.
Results:
Among 58 UG and 26 PG programs nationwide, response rates were 58.6% and 69.2%, respectively. Cancer constituted <10% of the curriculum and <10% of the final examination in 70.6% and 58.8% of UG schools. For PG programs, most devoted more time to teaching other specialties: cardiology (89%), respirology (67%), nephrology (67%), and gastroenterology (61%).
Conclusions:
Oncology is underrepresented in current curriculums.
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