ACCO: ASCO Core Curriculum Outline

Purpose. Medical Oncology is a rapidly growing specialty, not only in its membership, but in its knowledge base as well. In order to keep pace with the changing profile of health care delivery and still ensure uniform quality subspecialty training, a template for education is needed. Design and Results. An Ad Hoc Committee was created from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) membership in 1997. Goals of training were discussed, and curriculum guidelines were created. The great expansion in knowledge related to cancer care has led to this current revision of the initial curriculum. The goals of this second edition of ASCO curriculum remain the same and emphasize formal instruction in the following: (1) the treatment of individual malignancies, with an emphasis on a coordinated multidisciplinary approach; (2) a clinical experience that emphasizes patient management in both the inpatient and outpatient settings; (3) the ability to perform specified procedures; and (4) the key tools in basic science that apply to patient management. This document should be considered the educational framework around which a training program is developed. The American Society of Clinical Oncology was founded in 1965, and by 1979, the membership had grown to 2,950. Today, more than 20,000 physicians are members of ASCO. Since the first subspecialty examination in medical oncology was offered in 1973, the number of certified medical oncologists has risen to over 8,000. Medical Oncology is not only one of the youngest subspecialties in internal medicine, but also one of the fastest growing. The recent years have witnessed an explosion in medical technology. The pharmacopoeia of chemotherapeutic agents has grown from the three available agents in 1950 to over 50 antineoplastic agents. Molecular diagnostic testing is now commonplace, and more widespread use of genetic screening is on the horizon. Moreover, an entirely new area of clinical research trials has been initiated in pharmacologic cancer prevention. At the same time, health care has become an “industry” that has resulted in the shift of the majority of cancer care to the outpatient setting, with a focus on costcontainment. It is a challenge to develop a curriculum for training physicians in so dynamic an environment. While the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) create a basic structure for subspecialty training, the specific items that are to be included in the training curriculum are not within their purview. ASCO leadership has thus taken on the task of creating a “Competence Comprising Curriculum” for From the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT; Northwestern University, Chicago, IL; University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco; Scripps Clinic; Moores UCSD Cancer Center, San Diego, CA; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; New York University Medical Center, New York; Albert Einstein Cancer Center, Bronx, NY; Wayne State University, Detroit, MI; University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI; University of Colorado Health Science Center, Denver, CO; Texas Oncology PA, Dallas; University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX; Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Chapel Hill, NC; Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL; Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA.