Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO)

The members of this Society and its Executive Committee believe that standardization of fellowship programs in urologic oncology is needed to assure trainees will receive a superior experience and to achieve a level of expertise that will allow them to coordinate and participate in multi disciplinary care in an academic or private practice setting. Criteria for fellowship programs are reviewed annually. The Fellowship Committee reviews all programs applications and makes recommendations for approval to the Executive Committee. The Fellowship Committee also monitors the quality and accreditation of Urologic Oncology Fellowships.

Instructions
The SUO accredits two year fellowships in urologic oncology. At least 12 months of this time must be devoted to clinical work. The requirements for a fellowship program are specified in the Requirements section of this page.

Programs may apply for accreditation through the SUO Fellowship Committee. The application should be sent to the chairman of the Fellowship Committee as listed on the application. The document should be submitted on a floppy disk and with two signed hard copies.

The application fee is $3,000. This should be included with the application and should be paid with a check drawn on a US dollar account in a United States bank. Make checks payable to the Society of Urology Oncology.

The director of the program applying for accreditation will be contacted by the Fellowship Committee Chairman's office to arrange a site visit. This will be a one day visit by an active SUO member site visitor. The format of the site visit will be similar to a Residency Review Site visit. The site visitor's report and the application form will be reviewed by the SUO Fellowship Committee at its next meeting. Meetings will be held at least annually and more often if the volume of applications justifies the need.

Chairman
Christopher Amling MD, FACS
Professor & Chief
Division of Urology
Oregon Health & Science University
Mail Code - CH1OU
3303 SW Bond Avenue
Portland, OR 97239
Phone: 503-494-4779 / Fax - 503-346-1501
amling@ohsu.edu

Members
Daniel Lin, MD
University of Washington - Department of Urology
P.O. Box 356510
1959 NE Pacific St.
Seattle, WA 98195
Phone: 206-667-1342 / Fax: 206-667-2917
dlin@u.washington.edu

Ashish M. Kamat, MD
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
1515 Holcombe Blvd., Box 446
Houston, TX 77030
Phone: 713-792-3250
akamat@mdanderson.org

Bradley C. Leibovich, MC
Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education
Department of Urology
200 First Street, SW
Rochester MN 55905
Phone: 507-284-3981
leibovich.bradley@mayo.edu

Jeffrey M. Holzbeierlein, MD
Kansas University Medical Center
3901 Rainbow Blvd., MS-3016
Kansas City, KS 66160
Phone: 913-588-7564 / Fax: 913-588-7625
jholzbeierlein@kumc.edu

David Peter Wood, Jr. MD
University of Michigan
1500 East Medical Center Drive
3875 Taubman
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Phone: 734-763-9269
davwood@umich.edu

Michael S. Cookson, MD
Vanderbilt University
A1302 MCN-Dept of Urologic Surgery
1161 21st Avenue S.
Nashville, TN 37232
Phone: 516-322-2101
michael.cookson@vanderbilt.edu

Essential and Unique Characteristics of a Fellowship Trained Urologic Oncologic Surgeon:

The goal of advanced training in urologic oncology is to provide further knowledge and skills beyond the expertise achieved during a urology residency program. The additional expertise should include scholarship, critical analysis of complex clinical problems, and development of advanced technical skills. The fellow should develop good skills in the planning of multidisciplinary approaches to patient care. The trainee should also achieve expertise in basic and clinical scientific research methodologies. The urologic oncology program must be associated with an ACGME accredited urologic training program or an NCI designated cancer center.

After completing a two-year minimum fellowship in Urologic Oncology, the surgeon should demonstrate the following unique characteristics:

It is not necessary that all fellowship programs have exactly the same sequence of experiences. All programs must provide a structured educational experience at an advanced level for the trainee to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to become a sub-specialist in the field.
All programs must be at least 24 months in duration.
The clinical portion of the experience must be a minimum of 12 months in duration and the research portion of the experience must be a minimum of 12 months in duration
Research completed in the area of urologic oncology outside of residency training and undr the auspices of governing bodies such as AFUD, NIH, and NIH Canada, and during post-doctoral training can be counted toward the fellows research time during fellowship. The research must be in an area relevant to urologic oncology and prospectively considered as adequate based on quality and quantity by the Fellowship Committee. Additionally, only those programs already SUO approved as fellowship programs can request that a potential fellow's research be reviewed.
SUO approved fellowship program directors that also have a dedicated year of research built into their residency program can apply prospectively to allow a candidate coming out of their residency program and into their fellowship program to count their research toward the fellowship research year. These situations will be reviewed by the Fellowship Committee on a case-by-case basis as to the quantity and quality of the research and whether it is adequate to omit the research year of fellowship training.

Sponsoring and Participating Institutions
The urologic oncology training program must have a single sponsoring institution. When the resources of additional institutions are used, inter-institutional agreements must be made by the institutional governing boards. There must be a clear educational rationale to justify the inclusion of participating institutions in the program.

Institutional Support
Institutions must provide support to ensure that adequate meeting rooms, class rooms, office space, computer facilities, library, state of the art equipment, and diagnostic, therapeutic, and research facilities are available to support the educational program.

It is necessary that the institution(s) provide salary and benefits appropriate to the level of training for the fellow.

Funds should be available for the trainee to attend the annual meeting of the Society of Urologic Oncology and other appropriate meetings.

Programs must develop a structured curriculum with defined educational goals and objectives. Clinical, basic science, and research conferences, as well as seminars and critical literature review activities pertaining to the subspecialty, must be conducted regularly and as scheduled. It is essential that trainees participate in planning and in conducting conferences.Both the faculty and trainees must attend and participate in multidisciplinary conferences.
Trainees must have the appropriate supervised opportunities to develop skills in providing consultation and in communicating with colleagues and referring physicians. The program must provide trainees with the opportunity to teach other health care professionals.
The fellowship training must involve increasing responsibility in both inpatient and outpatient environments and should culminate in significant patient management responsibilities spent within the institution(s) approved as part of the program.
It is mandatory that the fellowship training program make available educational experiences and faculty interaction with related disciplines such as general surgery, gynecology, medical oncology, radiation oncology, pathology, nuclear medicine, diagnostic imaging, biostatitistics, and preventive medicine.

Programs must provide structured clinical opportunities for trainees to develop advanced skills in urologic surgery. Included in this training should be exposure to laparoscopic approaches to urologic tumors.
A sufficient number and variety of cases must be available for each trainee to assure adequate inpatients and outpatient exposure to the broad rage of conditions associated with the management of urologic tumors, without diluting the experience of residents in the core program.
During the clinical portion of the fellowship, it is desirable that the fellow be involved (either as surgeon or first assistant) in at least 100 major surgical procedures for the treatment of urologic tumors. The experience must be sufficiently broad for the fellow to demonstrate proficiency in caring for all frequently encountered tumors of the genitourinary tract.
Lines of responsibility must be clearly delineated for trainees and other residents as related to areas of training, clinical duties, and duration of training. Such information must be supplied to the Society of Urological Oncology Fellowship Committee with the program information forms.

An active research component is required. Although the clinical experience is essential, there must be meaningful supervised research experience for the trainee while maintaining clinical experience.
If basic science laboratory training is offered, the necessary facilities must be available under the supervision of a mentor who has demonstrated a national reputation in basic science research evidenced by national grant support, publications in peer-reviewed journals, and membership in prestigious societies. The opportunities for clinical and basic science research available during the fellowship and the expectations and requirements should be stipulated. Trainees should be advised and supervised by qualified staff members on the conduct of both clinical and basic science research.

Program directors must establish procedures for evaluating the clinical and technical competence of trainees. These procedures must include observation, assessment and substantiation of the trainee's acquired body of knowledge, skills in physical examination and communication, technical proficiency, professional attitudes, and humanistic qualities as demonstrated within the clinical setting. The trainee's abilities in consultation skills, patient management, decision-making, and critical analysis of clinical situations also must be evaluated. The evaluation process must include structured feedback on performance, including appropriate counseling and necessary remedial effort, prior to completing the prescribed training period.
A documented record of regular periodic evaluation of each trainee must be maintained on at least a semiannual basis and must be reviewed formally with the trainee. The program must maintain documentation of description of performance evaluations signed by director and trainee. A statement documenting the fellow's satisfactory completion of his training program must be provided by the fellowship program director to the SUO Fellowship Committee.
Upon completion of the fellowship training program, the trainee will complete a resume of his/her experience in the respective fellowship training program on the appropriate form provided by the SUO Fellowship Committee (see page 14 of application form). His/her report must include a log of the type and number of procedures (by CPT code) performed by the fellow. The fellow must also provide documentation of the multidisciplinary experience, research activity, publications, and presentations.
A personal assessment of the training program should be completed by the fellow and sent to the SUO Fellowship Committee for filing. This review will be confidential and will focus on the trainee's perception of the adequacies of the training and the program's ability to meet the standards for education as prescribed in this document. The results of this evaluation shall provide one mechanism for evaluation of a fellowship program.

Faculty Evaluation
Teaching faculty of the fellowship program must also be evaluated by the trainee(s) on a semiannual basis and this evaluation should include teaching ability and commitment, clinical knowledge, and scholarly contributions. This information will be filed by the Program Director and used as a reference for subsequent re-accreditation

Program Evaluation
There should be documented evidence of periodic self-evaluation of the program in relation to the educational goals, the needs of the trainees, and the teaching responsibilities of the faculty. This evaluation should include an assessment of the balance between the educational and service components of the program. Records of such evaluations should be available to the site visit team at the time of re-accreditation

Notification of Accreditation Status
Action on accreditation will be reported to the program director by a formal letter of notification from SUO Fellowship Committee. Fellows in a program should be aware of the accreditation status of the program and must be notified of any change in the accreditation status.

Appeals Process
Appeal of the committee's decision on accreditation should be made in writing within two months of receipt of the committee's letter. The appeal will be reviewed by the Executive Committee of the SUO which will render a decision by majority vote.

Application
Please submit applications to:

Society of Urologic Oncology
Urologic Oncology Fellowship Program
c/o Mary Tully
Two Woodfield Lake
1100 E. Woodfield Road, Suite #520
Schaumburg, IL 60173

SUO Fellowship Programs