About Radiation Oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin

William A. Hall, MD
Bob Uecker Professor of Radiation Oncology

The Department of Radiation Oncology of the Medical College of Wisconsin is an internationally recognized, innovative and groundbreaking department in the specialty of Radiation Oncology. Precision radiation medicine is at the fundamental core of our history and future. The department has a longstanding, celebrated commitment and engagement in the Medical College of Wisconsin’s missions. Broadly, the department has a vision that is aligned with a set of shared values including professionalism, innovation, discovery, quality, safety, integrity, empathy, and service. Our engagement is reflected in our daily efforts to improve the health and well-being of our patients through direct patient care, education, research, and community outreach.

Patient Care

Exceptional and compassionate patient care is the foundation of our purpose. By delivering state of the art radiotherapy services in a personalized, and precise manner the expertise of our faculty is transferred directly to patients. All this takes place with the absolute latest radiotherapeutic principles and practices. Leading the way is our department’s use of innovative technology including MR Linac based adaptive radiation therapy, MR guided brachytherapy, Radixact™ Tomotherapy™, Gamma Knife ICON™, and soon intensity modulated proton beam therapy incorporating in room CT guidance. At the core of these technological abilities is our faculty and staff with deep expertise in both adult and pediatric patients. Such expertise enables both precise and personalized therapy that minimizes treatment side effects and improves quality of life.

Education

The Radiation Oncology Department is deeply committed to the education of future generations of radiation oncology professionals. The Radiation Oncology Medical Residency Program, Medical Physics Residency Program, and Medical Physics Certificate Program provide education and training in the principles and practice of radiation therapy, medical physics, radiation treatment planning, and administration of radiation therapy. Upon completion of these programs, our trainees are equipped with the skill set to acquire and maintain the knowledge base necessary to provide the highest level of precise radio-therapeutic treatment over the course of their entire career. Medical students are given the opportunity for rotations in radiation oncology. These students are exposed to a wide array of clinical experiences. Such experiences center around the multi-disciplinary management of malignancies. The breadth of our educational offerings also includes training programs for medical dosimetrists and radiation therapists through a partnership with the Radiation Therapy program at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse.  Finally, many of our faculty are members of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in which they advise graduate students and mentor Postdoctoral fellows.

Research

Advancing the field of radiation oncology is a long-standing cornerstone of our department. Faculty are in a constant pursuit for discovery of basic, translational, clinical, technological, and radiobiological knowledge that fundamentally strives to understand and improve the standard of care for patients. Our departmental research efforts remain largely focused on clinical and translational technology developments with a focus on widespread use of adaptive radiotherapy to personalize treatment for our patients. Additional departmental focus areas include the use of imaging biomarkers along with molecular phenotyping to develop biologically guided radiation therapy paradigms. Our long-standing interest and expertise in mitigation of normal tissue radiation injury continues to be highly relevant and complimentary to this new focus. Driving some of this innovation at the departmental level is the Radiation Oncology Committee to Advance Knowledge and Education through Clinical Trials or “ROCKET” program. There are numerous active trials supported by ROCKET, which provides a pathway to move radiation oncology discovery into open and multidisciplinary clinical trials.  As a conduit for rapid dissemination of our technologies, our department maintains strong collaborations with commercial partners, including spin off companies originating from Radiation Oncology faculty. Finally, several of our faculty are highly active in the NCI funded cooperative groups, such as NRG Oncology, and run international clinical trials through these well-known organizations.

Community Outreach

It is our mission to develop and participate in high-quality cancer care programs that extend the state-of-the-art radiotherapy practice to community sites. Through this practice, we are constantly ensuring that our local communities are benefitting from our outstanding patient care and discovery. In these community settings, such programmatic extension is likely to raise the standard of care and provide access to clinical research. Clinical services are provided to the community with the latest advancements and technologies at five existing locations: Froedtert Hospital, Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee, Froedtert Menomonee Falls Hospital, Froedtert West Bend Hospital and Drexel Town Square Health Center. Pediatric patients from Children’s Wisconsin also receive radiation oncology care at Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin.

In addition to our current local community engagement, we are committed to expanding our national and global impact through significant contributions to our professional societies that include: American Association of Medical Physics, American Board of Radiology, American Cancer Society, American Radium Society, American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Society of Radiation Oncology, American Brachytherapy Society, American College of Radiology, Radiological Society of North America, International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group, Radiation Research Society as well as through our direct participation in the International Cancer Expert Corps.