Comprehensive Cancer Care Team

Rotating interns are veterinarians who have graduated from veterinary schools across the country, and seek additional training by rotating with specialty services at PennVet for one intensive year. Rotating interns spend the majority of their time with the Emergency service, Internal Medicine, and Surgery in order to gain a wide knowledge base about treating a variety of disease processes. They also have the opportunity to rotate through the CCC service, with either a focus on medical or surgical oncology. Rotating interns are closely supervised by a board-certified attending veterinarian during their time on the CCC service. A rotating internship is the first step in the process toward veterinary specialization. PennVet typically takes about 12 rotating interns per year.

These veterinarians have already completed 4 years of veterinary school and a one-year rotating internship. Due to the competitiveness of many specialty fields, including oncology, specialty internships are becoming increasingly common as a year of additional, focused experience in a field of interest. The CCC service has a specialty intern in radiation oncology, and in some years also a specialty intern in clinical trials.

Residents have completed a 4-year veterinary degree program, a rotating internship, and in some cases a specialty internship. Most residencies are intensive, 3-year training programs in a particular field of interest, such as medical or radiation oncology, or surgery. While residents spend the majority of their time in their field of interest, rotations through other services in the hospital (such as Internal Medicine, Pathology, and Radiology) are also required. For this reason, a particular resident may sometimes rotate off the CCC service to complete their other requirements. Residency programs are highly competitive; for example, the medical oncology residency program usually has about 40 applicants for one available position per year. Most residencies require candidates for board-certification to complete a research study and pass two rigorous exams, one at the end of second year and one at the end of third.