Research
Gynecologic Oncology Fellowship Research
One year of the three-year fellowship is protected time for research and academic development in which there will be minimal interruption from clinical duties related to the fellowship. The training of gynecologic oncology fellows will be individualized based on the fellows’ previous training, skills, research interests and other aspirations. The educational process will be formally structured with an Individual Development Plan (IDP) by the fellow, thesis committee and an advisory committee comprised of their chosen research mentor.
Our program is designed to foster the desire and opportunity to pursue a more expanded mentored and collaborative investigational experience that has the goal of training interested fellows to become productive junior faculty investigators who are poised to initiate collaborative investigative experiences and funding after their fellowship.
Research opportunities are varied and tailored to the fellow. Mentors have experience in a wide variety of areas such as population health and large database, quality improvement, translational research, clinical trials, investigator-initiated trials, early phase clinical trials and health services research.
Our division has a robust clinical trial portfolio and fellows will be exposed to national cooperative group trials, Investigator-Initiated trials, Phase I clinical trials, and multidisciplinary research opportunities within the cancer center and community.
Select Research Programs
Gynecologic fellows have been involved in many academic projects throughout the cancer center, including educational research, quality research, and translational research including the following select programs:
- The Gynecologic Oncology Translational Research Program
- The REWARD Study
- Moonshot Initiative for Smoking Cessation for Cancer Patients
- FAME-R Research Fellowship
- Foundations in Health Services Research Certificate Program
Coursework
- Thesis
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All fellows formally defend their thesis to their thesis committee at the end of their third year of fellowship. The fellow will be required to complete their thesis prior to graduation per ABOG requirements.
- Quality Improvement Projects
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We also require fellows to initiate and complete one or more quality improvement (QI) projects during the research portion of their fellowship and to complete this project prior to fellowship completion. We define QI projects for our fellows as systematic, data-guided analyses and activities that are designed to bring about immediate actionable improvements in health delivery to our gynecologic oncology patients at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. Importantly, to make improvements, fellows will need to gain an understanding of our healthcare organization and our immediate gynecologic oncology multidisciplinary healthcare delivery system and key processes within this system. The primary mentor chosen for this project will be from among the Gynecologic Oncology faculty, however, a multidisciplinary team approach to these investigations will be essential to its success.
- Outreach and Advocacy Projects
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“Healthcare does not exist in a vacuum.” We all participate in a complex healthcare system and achieving optimal health outcomes can be viewed on several levels: 1) the individual, 2) the community, and 3) the population. Fellows will participate in outreach and/or advocacy activities of their choosing to gain a better understanding of the social, political and economic determinants of health that ultimately influence the outcomes and well-being of their patients.
- Outreachis the activity of providing services to populations who might not otherwise have access to those services. We are strengthened when we develop a deeper understanding of the community that we serve and being an engaged community member means reaching out beyond the hospital campus. Outreach activites include community-based education, use of a mobile outreach bus to provide cervical cancer screening, STI testing, endometrial biopsies, etc at events such as Medwish and the LGBT health fair.
- Advocacyis defined as any action that works in favor of individuals or groups. We are all advocates to our patients, but advocacy may also involve collaboration with others to achieve influence within varied institutional, political, economic and social systems. Advocacy may take the form of organizing, educating the public or legislators, undertaking relevant research, working with agencies, litigation or lobbying.