HEMA 709A Hematology/Oncology Consult -OHSU/VAMC

Credits: 4
Students learn to manage, diagnose and treat common hematologic/oncologic diseases. Use and interpretation of chest, abdominal, bone x-rays, CT Scans, MRI, and nuclear medicine scans as well as interpretation of blood and bone marrow smears, and the management of oncologic emergencies. Problems commonly seen include anemia, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, lung cancer, head and neck cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, lymphoma, leukemia, and myeloma. Students manage 2-3 patients per week in the inpatient setting. 1-2 patients per week will be seen in the outpatient setting. The outpatient experience will be scheduled once each week. Opportunities to observe and perform procedures include bone marrow aspirations, biopsies, interpretation of blood smears and bone marrow smears. Conferences include Morning Report, Grand Rounds, Pathology Slide Conference, Hematology Journal Club, Lymphoma Conference, Clinical Case Conference, and Case Management Conference where students present particularly difficult cases. Students work with a team of one full time attending physician, a subspecialty Hematology/Oncology fellow, and often an internal medicine resident or intern. Students are provided with a volume of directed clinical reading to cover essential elements in Hematology/Medical Oncology. Evaluation is by clinical performance, weekly informal oral examinations on the assigned reading, quality of case presentations, and humanistic skills. With the intense involvement of students in both the inpatient & outpatient arenas, with such a cohesive course curriculum, unique skills in Hematology/Medical Oncology should be acquired. Should unique patients be cared for by the students, careful evaluation and documentation may lead to a case report that may be submitted for publication in the medical literature.

Graded: Pass/No pass
May be taken only once for credit