Pillars of progress through leadership, education and collaboration

Welcome to the December 2017 issue of Applied Radiation Oncology! This month we are excited to announce a new collaboration with the Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology (ARRO), a national leadership society that fosters career development and professional growth for the next generation of radiation oncologists. In addition, this issue focuses on leadership and education, which are paramount to advancing radiation oncology.

Joining our advisory board as the ARRO liaison is ARRO Chair Kaleigh Doke, MD, PGY-4 resident at the University of Kansas, who will spearhead efforts to recruit resident-penned editorials, case reports and review article submissions. She also will work with us to spotlight the achievements and experiences of ARRO’s Global Health Scholars, leading us on invaluable and eye-opening journeys through the trials, triumphs and practices of radiation oncology facilities around the world. Such information-sharing serves as a foundation for building bridges to improve radiation therapy internationally, especially in countries with severely limited resources. Since serving as a Global Health Scholar is a tremendous opportunity with far-reaching potential, we are delighted to showcase this program in future issues. For more about ARRO initiatives and resident leadership roles, please see Dr. Doke’s ARRO Resident Voice editorial in the issue.

We are also pleased to announce the appointment of Nadia Saeed, MD candidate at Yale School of Medicine, to the new role of medical student representative for the ARO advisory board. Among her stewardship roles, she will write and help recruit peers to submit review articles and editorials, with a focus on education and other issues facing medical students in radiation oncology. The first article is Augmentedand virtual reality (AR/VR): Exploring a future role in radiation oncology education and training by William Jin, a 4th-year medical student at the University of South Florida (USF). In this well-composed review article, Jin and colleagues examine the novel subject of how AR/VR technologies can cost-effectively enhance training in our highly complex medical specialty.

The companion article, Emotional-intelligence-centric leadership training for radiation oncologists, by Sarah E. Hoffe, MD, of USF and Moffitt Cancer Center, and her colleagues, offers a timely and interesting review detailing how and why an EI-based leadership curriculum plays an important role in the postgraduate medical training of U.S. radiation oncology residents. She describes how radiation oncology residents may be in a unique position to lead the way in crafting EI-centric leadership competencies. We hope you enjoy these leadership/education reviews, as well as the issue’s additional articles and case reports.

On behalf of Applied Radiation Oncology and our expanding advisory board, I wish you and your families a wonderful holiday season and 2018!