Radiation Oncology Residency

Program Director: Stephen Karlovits, MD
Accreditation: ACGME
Program Length: 4 years (PGY2-PGY5)
Residents per year: 1

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About the program
Benefits and stipends
Curriculum
Research

Program Overview

The radiation oncology residency program at Allegheny General Hospital is a fully ACGME-accredited four year advanced training program. Allegheny General
Hospital is a part of the Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute (AHNCI).

We offer the latest radiotherapy and radiosurgical technology to provide outstanding clinical training to our residents. The goal of our training program is to produce well-trained, competent, and compassionate radiation oncologists who can function at a high level independently, use the entire spectrum of radiotherapeutic techniques, and become leaders in our field. A significant commitment of staff and resources throughout the department, hospital, Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute, and Allegheny-Singer Research Institute ensure continual education and academic advancement.

Residents spend the majority of their time at Allegheny General Hospital, a large tertiary care academic center in downtown Pittsburgh. The department is equipped with 2 Elekta Linear Accelerators, Elekta Unity MRI Linear Accelerator, Gamma knife Icon and 1 CT simulator. Residents also spend a significant period of time at West Penn Hospital, the designated women’s care hospital, where they get a significant experience in advanced gynecologic brachytherapy techniques, high dose rate prostate brachytherapy, and low dose rate prostate brachytherapy. Residents will gain experience in intensity modulated radiation therapy, gamma knife radiosurgery, stereotactic body radiation therapy, MRI guided radiation therapy, intracoronary vascular brachytherapy, high and low dose rate brachytherapy, total body irradiation, total skin irradiation, eye plaque therapy, and intraoperative radiation therapy. Pediatric experience is obtained from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and cases requirements are met through that experience.

Approximately 200 patients per day throughout the network receive external beam irradiation resulting in a combined total of more than 40,000 external radiotherapy treatments per year. In addition, approximately 300 radioactive implants are performed annually, including more than 120 prostate seed implants per year.

Curriculum

Teaching Conference once a week is a case based presentation and discussion of a specific disease site, including history, physical exam, work up, staging, treatment paradigm, and treatment planning.

Journal Club once a week is a discussion of the seminal trials pertaining to a particular disease site

Chart Rounds are network wide, centralized review of all new cases among 11 treatment sites

Physics and Radiation Biology once a week lectures led by our staff physicists and radiation biologist

Tumor boards are disease site specific conferences attended by radiation oncology, medical oncology, and surgical oncology and are weekly for head and neck, breast, colorectal, CNS, lymphoma, metastatic disease, gynecology, urology, hepatobiliary, pancreatic, esophagus, sarcoma, and skin.

Visiting Professor Program experts in radiation oncology are invited throughout the year, along with residents from radiation oncology programs in the area

AHN Cancer Institute Grand Rounds weekly from invited experts in radiation oncology, medical oncology, and surgical oncology around the country.

Benefits

Vacation: 4 weeks of vacation
Call Schedule: Home call, one week at a time.
Book fund which can be used towards books, question banks and other educational material subscriptions
Office space: Residents are provided a private work space with a laptop and dual monitors
AHN issued iPhone
Conference funds are provided by the department, separate from the educational fund.

Teaching Faculy

Chirag Shah, MD

Department Chair

Sushil Beriwal, MD

Academic Chief

Bindu Rusia, MD

Residency Program Director

Stephen Karlovits, DO

Associate Residency Program Director

Alexander Kirichenko, MD

Clinical Director of both Gastrointestinal and SBRT Programs

Paul Renz, DO

Genitourinary Radiation Oncology

Rodney Wegner, MD

Thoracic Radiation Oncology

Zachary Horne, MD

Gynecological and Genitourinary Radiation Oncology

Ankur Patel, MD

Gynecological Radiation Oncology

Mark Johnson, MS, Physics

Matthew Goss, PhD, Physics

Current Residents

PGY 5

Fady Sourial, DO

Medical School: Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine

PGY 3

Muhammad Memon, MD

Medical School: Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences Jamshoro

PGY 2

Jessica Hossa, MD

Medical School: University of Illinois College of Medicine

Tiffany Kim, DO

Medical School: A.T. Still University of Health Sciences School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona

Recent Graduates from the Radiation Oncology Residency Program

Parisa Shamsesfandabadi, MD (2025)	Duke University, Durham, NC
Hirsch Matani, MD (2023)	University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Stephen Abel, DO (2022)	Allegheny Health Network, Beaver, PA
John Bergin, MD (2022)	Cancer Care of North Florida, Lake City, FL
April Metzger, MD (2021)	Allentown Radiation Onc Assoc, Allentown, PA
Shaakir Hasan, DO (2019)	Montefiore Medical Center, New York City, NY
Steven Gresswell, MD (2018)	Keesler Air Force Base Radiation Onc, MS
Paul Renz, DO (2018)	Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA
Vijay Kudithipudi, MD (2017)	Ohio Health Physician Group, Columbus, OH
Michael Hall, MD (2015)	Medical Group of South Florida, Jupiter, FL
Erik Lappinen, MD (2014)	Oschner MD Anderson Cancer Center, Covington, LA
Matthew Packard, MD (2014)	Corewell Health, Grand Rapids, MI
Katherine Kotinsley, MD (2013)	Jefferson Frankfort Hospital, Philadelphia, PA

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About Graduate Medical Education

The Radiation Oncology Residency program is part of the Graduate Medical Education (GME) opportunities offered by the AHN Medical Education Consortium. Learn more about Graduate Medical Education.