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DESCRIPTION AND
GOALS OF COURSE:
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The Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology offers a one-month rotation to medical students. The Division is directed by Dr. Joseph Wiley and Dr. Ruth Luddy, both board certified in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. Also on the staff are two pediatric oncology nurses, a pediatric oncology nurse practitioner, a social worker, and a laboratory technician.
Clinic is held five mornings a week, and afternoons are spent seeing
inpatients, teaching, and for a clinical review conference of all patients
seen that day. Children under 18 years of age are seen for
diagnostic workups and for management of a variety of hematologic and
oncologic disorders, including sickle cell anemia and other anemias,
hemostatic disorders such as ITP and hemophilia, and malignant disorders
such as leukemia and numerous types of solid tumors. There are three
examining rooms, three transfusion stations, a large nursing station and a
delightfully designed children's waiting room in the outpatient
area. A laboratory is also located in the outpatient clinic, which
is available to perform and process routine blood work, bone marrow and
spinal fluid examinations on the large outpatient population. A
teaching microscope offers the student opportunity to review blood smears
and bone marrow aspirations with the attending physician. Inpatients
are admitted to a general pediatric inpatient service or the pediatric
intensive care unit.
By the end of the rotation, the student is expected to be able to
better evaluate the child with anemia, leukopenia, or thrombocytopenia,
and learn how common malignant disorders first present to the
pediatrician. The student will also learn the complications of
therapy and the effects on the immune system of these diseases and their
treatments. He or she should be comfortable in evaluating a
peripheral blood smear for more common disorders such as iron deficiency,
sickle cell disease and mononucleosis. Although this course is not
meant to teach students the latest chemotherapeutic protocols or to make
them an expert bone marrow morphologist, there is ample opportunity for
students to pursue, in depth, any topic of interest in this
specialty. The student also has the opportunity to interface with
patients and their families who are dealing with chronic and sometimes
fatal disorders.
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