Welcome to the University of Michigan’s residency program! The overall goal of our program is to educate you to become a great physician, a great oncologist, and a great academic radiation oncologist (in that order). What we are trying to say is that, while we feel it is important to learn all of the details of radiation oncology, we want to produce outstanding physicians who have had broad exposure to all aspects of oncology.
Medical students often ask us, “What is the strength of your program?” Our answer is that our strength is our breadth. We have nationally recognized clinicians, physicists, and biologists. Indeed, we feel that that there is not another department in the country that is as strong in all three areas. Your primary goal is to obtain excellent clinical training, which you will achieve through seeing patients at the University Hospital, the Veterans Hospital, and Providence Hospital (a community hospital with an active brachytherapy service). We have an amazing array of multi-disciplinary tumor boards and clinics (including both the “standards” like breast and GU, as well as the esoteric such as adrenal cancer and Merkel cell tumor). Our didactic program includes the standard clinical, biology and physics classes, but also includes training in statistics and palliative care. Our residents graduate as broadly trained physicians and oncologists who are state-of-the-art in radiation therapy.
A defining aspect of our program is our emphasis on research. All residents who are making satisfactory clinical progress are able to spend at least 1 year in research. We offer a remarkable variety of potential research experiences, including clinical research, cancer biology, physics, health services research, public policy, and more. The University of Michigan is the only school in the country with a combination of a top ten medical school, law school, business school, engineering school, and school of public health, which gives us an outstanding interdisciplinary education and research environment. Our residents present their work at national meetings, publish multiple papers, many of which contribute to the development of new treatment protocols, and are well prepared to succeed in academics.
Ann Arbor is also a delightful town, with many cultural events and excellent restaurants. You can live close to work in beautiful and safe neighborhoods. Yes, our winters are cold, but all of us who live here know that if the weather were good all year round, everyone would want to live here, and none of us could afford it.”
Finally, as we celebrate the 36th year of our radiation oncology department, we know that we provide an unmatched place to live and train in radiation oncology. Although rankings cannot change this focus and the success our residents have enjoyed, we are also pleased by the recent US News and World Report / Doximity rankings which placed us as the 6th best residency program for Radiation Oncology training in the United States (and the 2nd best program associated with a public University). We were also not alone in this regard as the University of Michigan was ranked in the top 10 for 12 of the 20 specialties. So, you can know that coming here you truly will be with the leaders and the best. Therefore, we are confident that we provide an outstanding environment to train the next generation of physicians, radiation oncologists, and radiation oncology researchers.
We look forward to meeting you soon.
