Radiation Oncology Trainee Committee (ROTC)

A Message from the New Chair: Dr Tracy Lim

And just like this, we are already a few months into the year 2023. They say time flies as an adult and only keeps picking up speed—that could not be any truer. As we move hopefully away from the COVID era and have adapted to a new normal, working from home is less frequent and masks are slowly disappearing, we trainees continue to journey through advanced training with its joys and challenges.

The ROTC 2023 has big shoes to fill after the stellar job of the previous committee under the guidance of the excellent chair, Dr Hari Kirupananther. We plan this year to continue this work and advocating on behalf of our peers. We will remain a strong voice for trainees and continue putting all trainee matters first while improving trainee engagement.

On the education and training front, we will continue to support improved access to education resources for radiation oncology trainees. In 2022, we saw the return of examination preparation courses that are very welcome after the pandemic hiatus. Our work this year includes developing an online educational resource modelled to our radiology trainee colleagues’ centralised learning program to improve access to more standardised training material to all trainees.

The transition to the new training program continues and we are all adapting to the new ePortfolio platform. As with every new system, there have been some teething issues with ePortfolio that have been addressed and the support team remain extremely helpful with any queries so if you come across any hiccup, please reach out to them. We hope to be able to provide some direct input and feedback with the ePortfolio and help test out new items.

This year we saw the implementation of digital “written” examinations for the Phase 2 trainees that was rolled out seamlessly. The Phase 1 examinations are also planned to go ahead digitally with two series planned as from this year. We acknowledge and thank all those who have put in extra time and effort to help the examination format changes eventuate. The Phase 1 examiners in particular have had a tremendous task of writing a new bank of questions for the new MCQ format and we greatly appreciate your contribution and dedication to our training.

As a trainee hopefully nearing the end of my advanced training, I have seen several changes being implemented over the past few years with our training program. This gives me hope that we are responding to the demands of this new world and meeting its challenges. The recent pandemic has taught us, among many other things, the need to adapt.

The recent AMA Doctors in Training Trainee Forum highlighted areas of improvement for us, and I hope to see ongoing work and progress in the flexibility in training aspect of our program. Along the same line, gender equity is an under-recognised but important topic that needs to be addressed and hopefully will be.

Advanced training remains a time of significant stress and juggling work, life and study is no small undertaking. Burnout is common and affects more of us than we realise. Trainee wellbeing is imperative, and I urge all my colleagues to please take care of yourselves as best you can. I am forever reminded of the safety rules in aviation—attend to your own oxygen mask before helping others. Please reach out to friends, family, your trainee liaison officer or to your ROTC colleagues if you are struggling in any way and remember that we are not alone.

Dr Tracy Lim Chair, ROTC 2023