Oncology for the "On-Call"-ogist: a Canadian Curriculum to Improve the Quality of Acute Oncology Education for General Medicine Trainees.

General internal medicine (GIM) trainees manage many hospitalized cancer patients with complex care needs; however, most oncology educational resources focus on outpatient management. We aimed to develop and evaluate a novel and practical curriculum to improve the quality of oncology education to help GIM trainees care for cancer patients in the acute inpatient setting. A multi-specialty team of GIM trainees and medical oncology and palliative care physicians collaborated to develop a case-based, interactive curriculum built upon trainee input, involving three sessions focusing on respective domains of competency (DoC): (1) cancer diagnosis and staging, (2) oncological emergencies, and (3) end-of-life care. This curriculum was delivered to GIM trainees during their clinical rotations at Mount Sinai Hospital (Toronto, Canada) and was evaluated using anonymized pre- and post-course surveys. Twenty-nine residents and medical students participated in this curriculum from August to December 2023. Upon completion of the course, trainees' satisfaction with their oncology knowledge for the purpose of inpatient care improved, and their comfort level improved in overall DoC 1, overall DoC 2, and two of five competencies within DoC 3. The efficacy of this curriculum demonstrates the feasibility of teaching specialized oncology principles to a generalist audience using a novel educational approach.