03/02/2022
About the Clinical Oncology Curriculum:
Developing a Clinical Oncology Curriculum for Papua New Guinea was the vision of Dr Molumi, the CEO of PMGH, who relentlessly pursues the best oncology care for the people of PNG. The preliminary discussions of formulating a curriculum took place in 2019 when we first arrived in PNG. After a fairly smooth journey despite COVID-19 we are very glad about the approval of the curriculum by the UPNG SMHS in early 2021.
Clinical Oncology is a discipline of medicine that deals with two major treatment modalities of solid tumors - Radiation therapy and Chemotherapy. Due to the lack of a complete cancer treatment facility not only patients but doctors of PNG too have suffered immensely due to the lack of access to clinical training that facilitates cancer patient care. By taking the initiative of constructing the first state of the art Cancer center, PMGH has taken the utmost responsibility of leading the nation to an era of cancer cure and potentially an era of cancer freedom.
This 5 year curriculum would equip the trainee doctors with the skill set necessary to treat solid tumors with radiation and chemotherapy. The part-I that covers basic oncology sciences is for 2 years and part-II that covers practical clinical oncology with a scope of advanced training overseas. The curriculum is well balanced and is based on renowned colleges worldwide such as the RCR - UK, ESTRO - Europe, RANZCR- Australia and New Zealand.
Being a totally new speciality and a much needed discipline of medicine, the UPNG SMHS was very understanding and supportive, taking care of nearly everything. From drafting documents to scrutinising and finalizing agendas, we received the necessary support in every step of the way. A huge thanks to Professor John Vince, Professor Tefuarani and the Post Graduate committee for helping us navigate through the process effortlessly. They stood as strong as a pillar and made sure the curriculum met the university requirements needed for approval. The main challenge we face now is to get the center ready to start clinical services which would facilitate the commencement of the curriculum. Once the center starts clinical operations, an uptake of 5 candidates every 2 -3 years would be done in order to reach the minimal number of oncologists for PNG. MBBS graduates after their first year of residency would be eligible for this training as agreed upon by the UPNG SMHS.
The objective of the MMed program would be to make PNG self-sufficient with native oncologists and enable PNG meet the standard of care and reinforce quality of treatment along with the support of SCOP- The Society of Clinical Oncology for Papua New Guinea, an organisation that would serve as the face of Clinical Oncology for PNG globally.
The average oncologist general population ratio is 1.5 per 100,000 in Australia. Going by this standard, PNG would need 15 Oncologists per million population ideally and a total of 135 Oncologists for a 9 million PNG population. Certainly, efforts towards meeting such a figure would be a tremendous undertaking demanding commitment and consistent hard work.
Another statistic PNG should be made aware of is that, there should be 1 linear accelerator for 600 patients according to IAEA and up to 2 linear accelerators for a million population as per WHO. If we were to go by the IAEA recommendation, PNG would need at least 25 linear accelerators to meet the growing cancer population which is predicted to be around 15,000 new cases per year and according to WHO, up to 18 linear accelerators for a growing 9 million population of PNG. However, if the curriculum could produce a minimum of 30 Clinical Oncologists for 10 linear accelerators distributed throughout PNG then the program would be a huge success. We greatly aspire to be successful in our endeavours for the people of PNG.
Thank you.
Dr Priya & Dr Karthik,
Clinical Head & Program Director respectively.
