Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center Program

Program Identity & Fit

Wake Forest's Radiation Oncology residency is a university-based, academic program anchored in a Comprehensive Cancer Center that serves as a tertiary referral hub for smaller regional hospitals sending complex cases, giving residents a concentrated, high-acuity disease-site rotation structure (breast, GU, GI, CNS, H&N, GYN, lung, sarcoma, pediatrics) across the Wake Forest Baptist and VA (Hefner) sites. Research is a required, structured component of training, not an elective add-on: six dedicated months are built into the curriculum, residents are supported to attend national clinical research workshops, and several have independently developed and run their own clinical/translational protocols, often collaborating across dosimetry, physics, gynecology, urology, ENT and medical oncology. The program explicitly frames itself as offering "the benefits of a small program without the drawbacks" - close-knit, mentorship-heavy, faculty who trained broadly - while still delivering full case-volume breadth including brachytherapy and pediatric treatment planning to prepare residents for autonomous practice in any setting they choose. Faculty mentorship and resident-driven research initiative appear central to what the program values, alongside technical mastery of the full treatment pipeline (simulation, dosimetry, QA, on-treatment management, survivorship).