Oncology education initiatives at Singapore Society of Oncology (SSO)

Oncology advancements have been tremendous in recent years, and has reached great proportions in the last decade. The amount of information that oncologists have to grasp is enormous, and it is unsurprising that trainees find this challenging. The SSO Medical Oncology Review Course came about with the intention to teach general concepts and provide an overview of the latest practice-changing developments. Open to all oncology trainees, we also invited specialist nurses. Set over 4 days, we dedicated 3days to giving an overview with the last day being a mock VIVA Examination. This is done as our local exit specialist examination includes a VIVA and we hope to simulate one, complete with the actual stress to help our trainees prepare. We have had 4runs since, and will be running our fifth soon. It was initially an in-person event, restricted to local participants. The first edition was held over 3days, with the first half dedicated to new trainees and the second to our senior trainees for knowledge consolidation. After collating feedback, the course is now pitched at a higher training level, with an aim to help trainees strengthen concepts. Due to the COVID pandemic, we had had to shift virtually, but have since successfully opened up to include our Asian counterparts. By inviting domain experts, we hope to impart pearls of wisdom, to help our trainees understand and grasp the nuances. The feedback has consistently been favorable, with many trainees both international and local finding it immensely helpful. Educating ourselves and our younger generation is necessity to ensure that our oncology community continues to thrive and improve. While imparting knowledge, we hope to also impart subtleties of oncology found in the experiences of our senior colleagues. This is all done with the intention to build a generation of compassionate and knowledgeable oncologists.