Accreditation

This program fulfills the training requirements as define by the American Head and Neck Society and is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

Positions

The Head and Neck Oncology and Reconstructive Surgery Fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, accepts one fellow each year on a competitive basis.

Qualifications

Applicants for the Head and Neck Oncology and Reconstructive Surgery program must have completed an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) residency of program in otolaryngology, general surgery, or plastic surgery and documentation of completion or fulfillment of the requirements necessary to sit for the certification examination in one of these specialties by the respective American Board or Canadian counterpart of the Royal College of Surgeons.

International candidates must have completed an approved residency and be board-eligible in their country of origin. This training must be considered equivalent in scope to the ACGME-accredited residency requirements for North American candidates.

Also see general admissions requirements.

How to apply

Mayo’s academic year begins Aug. 1. Applicants must apply through AHNS Advanced Training Council, a third-party matching service, and use their Central Application System.

• Application period: December-March
• Interview period: March-June
• Match results: July

Complete the following steps to apply:

1. Visit the Fellowship Match - American Head and Neck Society (ahns.info) to register as an applicant and use their Central Application System to upload application.
2. All applications to Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education programs must include these application materials.
3. After submission, view the required Supplemental Items and Documents.

• • Upload each required item in the Supplemental Items section (if applicable)
  • Complete the Recommendation Request section (if applicable)

Appointments are made through the Fellowship Match, which is coordinated by AHNS Advanced Training Council. Applicants meeting the program’s requirements will be invited for a personal interview with the program director, assistant program director, and selected faculty. Interviews are conducted between March and June each year.

You will work closely with program faculty to provide comprehensive head and neck care in the ambulatory, inpatient, and outpatient surgical settings. An apprenticeship model for education is incorporated into the fellowship structure, akin to the model for resident training. Specifically, you will rotate with individual head and neck faculty for five ‘quintiles’ around 10 weeks each during the year. During this time, you are primarily assigned to one head and neck faculty; however, to maximize surgical training, you will work with other faculty on days where fellow-level ablative and reconstructive cases are scheduled.

In a typical week, you will spend one day in clinic with your assigned faculty per week. Schedule allowing, there is also opportunity for you to participate in anatomic dissections through the Mayo Clinic Rhoton Anatomic Lab.

During the Head and Neck Oncology and Reconstructive Surgery (HNORS) Fellowship, you will work closely with program faculty to provide comprehensive head and neck care in the ambulatory, inpatient, and outpatient surgical settings. An apprenticeship model for education is incorporated into the Head and Neck Fellowship structure.

Specifically, clinical fellows rotate with individual head and neck faculty for three-month quarters. During this time, you are primarily assigned to one faculty; however, to maximize surgical skull base training, you will cover other faculty on days where fellow-level ablative and reconstructive cases are scheduled.

  In a typical week, you will have one day in clinic and four operative days.

Block 1: Oncology Van Abel (KMV) Service (July, August, September)

Block 2: Oncology Price (DLP) Service (September, October, November)

Block 3: Oncology Tasche (KKT) Service (November, December, January)

Block 4: Oncology Moore (EJM) Service (January, February, March)

Block 5: Oncology Yin (LXY) Service (March, April, May)

12 days off service each year (not consecutive, distributed throughout the year)

• 3 days in head and neck radiation oncology
• 3 days in head and neck medical oncology
• 1 day in prosthodontics
• 1 day in neuroradiology
• 1 day in pathology
• 1 day in speech-language pathology
• 2 days on an elective of the fellow’s choice

As a fellow, you will participate in multidisciplinary conferences and courses throughout the academic year, including the weekly tumor board, multidisciplinary Oropharynx Cancer (OPX) Clinic, Oral Cavity and Reconstruction (OCCR) Clinic, and the annual head and neck dissection course. In addition, you will attend the quarterly Journal Club hosted by the assigned primary faculty for each quarter and attended by residents and research fellows.

You will rotate through departments associated with the multidisciplinary care of head and neck cancer patients in each quarter for one or two days. In addition to gaining exposure, this opportunity allows you to gain greater insight into the complete care of head and neck cancer patients and helps to develop cross disciplinary relationships.

A state-of-the-art, newly renovated head and neck dissection laboratory is available to you 24 hours a day, seven days a week via key card access. Fresh and formalin fixed cadaveric head and neck specimens are readily available upon request. With close collaboration with the Mayo Clinic Rhoton Anatomy lab, you will have the opportunity to work with PhD Anatomists in state-of-the-art facilities to master the anatomy they use in the operating room.

Call frequency

You are not expected to take call; however, in some cases you may participate in clinical or surgical care after routine clinical hours in order to maximize educational opportunities (for example, flap complications, TORS bleeds, etc.). In addition, the fellow may cover call responsibilities during resident in service training examinations and during the final week of residency training.

Moonlighting

Fellows may moonlight with program director approval. Moonlighting should not interfere with the required learning and must not violate the work-hour rules of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education or visa regulations. 

Conferences

You will participate in multidisciplinary conferences and courses throughout the academic year.

• Chief conference/M&M/Quality conference
• Head and Neck/Skull Base Tumor Board

Research opportunities

You will have the opportunity to participate in both basic science and clinical research, present at regional, national, and international meetings, and submit manuscripts for peer-reviewed publication.

The institution and department collectively offer robust infrastructure to support research within the field of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery. For example, statistical support is readily available through the Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, illustration support is freely available through the Division of Biomedical and Scientific Visualization, professional videography is available through media services, and support for anatomical studies is available through the Mayo Clinic Anatomy Laboratory and the Skull Base Dissection Laboratory. In addition, the department has several well curated databases focusing on oropharynx cancer, parotid cancer, and free flap outcomes which improves the quality and efficiency of clinical research.

Support for national and international conference attendance is provided per MCSGME policy. The program encourages fellows to initiate and complete one primary research project but anticipates they participate in larger ongoing projects throughout the year-long fellowship.

Teaching opportunities

You will function as a junior faculty member in clinic and the OR for training and teaching residents. You will teach and lead junior residents through straightforward head and neck cases (for example, neck dissections, parotids, thyroids, etc.).

You will participate as an instructor, under faculty guidance, in the junior resident anatomy series, where first- and second-year residents spend a day in the lab for one to two hours in the afternoon to review basic head and neck surgical procedures. You will also participate in the yearly didactic lecture series educating residents in head and neck surgery.

Other opportunities arise for you to teach rotating residents, medical students, and undergraduate students, such as lectures to the Mayo Clinic Medical Student ENT interest group, as well as mentoring high school, undergraduate and medical students in pursuit of a career in STEM or medical fields through a variety of programs currently in place through the Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery department.

As clinical educators, fellows are eligible to apply for the rank of academic instructor through Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.

Evaluation

To ensure that fellows acquire adequate knowledge and develop the appropriate technical skills to meet program expectations, their performance is monitored carefully during the Head and Neck Oncologic and Reconstructive Fellowship. Fellows are formally evaluated by supervising faculty members, residents, and allied health on a regular basis and have quarterly meetings with the program director to review these evaluations and Clinical Competency Committee feedback of their performance. In addition, fellows regularly evaluate the faculty to confirm that their educational needs are being met.

The Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at Mayo Clinic is one of the oldest and largest otorhinolaryngology specialty groups in the world. Each year, the department handles more than 80,000 patient visits and performs approximately:

• 2,000 head and neck surgical procedures
• 1,000 otologic and neurotologic surgical procedures
• 1,500 rhinologic and sinus procedures
• 900 outpatient operative procedures

The department has a long-standing strong collaboration with many critical departments, including radiation oncology, medical oncology, pathology, radiology, dental specialties, speech and language pathology, neuro-oncology, neuro-ophthalmology, oculoplastics, neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, endocrinology, radiology and the 3D anatomic modeling lab.

More than 1,200 new cases each year are completed by Mayo Clinic’s head and neck surgical team, including roughly 120 TORS cases each year and roughly 120 unique free flap surgical cases.

We have five full-time head and neck surgeons with experience in TORS and microvascular reconstruction in our department. As part of the Mayo Clinic apprenticeship model, you will have dedicated rotations with each facility member throughout the year.

In addition to caring for patients in clinical practice, Mayo Clinic's faculty is committed to teaching and facilitating the growth of medical knowledge. Many faculty members have published and lectured extensively and are highly regarded in their fields. In addition, they frequently collaborate with the other associated faculty in associated oncology fields, lateral and anterior skull base surgery.

	Katie Van Abel, M.D. Program Director View full profile
	Kendall Tasche, M.D. Associate Program Director View full profile
	Eric Moore, M.D. Professor of Otolaryngology View full profile
	Daniel Price, M.D. Professor of Otolaryngology View full profile
	Linda Yin, M.D. Professor of Otoloaryngology View full profile