Kaiser Permanente Southern California Residency and Fellowship Programs

About the Program

Medical staff and patient

The Kaiser Permanente Radiation Oncology department is academically oriented and dedicated to delivering high quality patient care. The residency program was founded in 1986 and we are one of the largest departments in the country. We see all types and stages of malignancies with a high percentage being curative treatments. We currently have 20 attendings and all are clinically driven. We take two residents per year and we are approved for 8 total residents. We received full accreditation at our last site survey in 2003. Completion of this four-year ACGME-approved residency in radiation oncology will lead to qualification for Therapeutic Radiology board certification. Physicians who have completed one acceptable postgraduate year in PGY-1 are taken for entry at the PGY-2 level. Kaiser does offer a PGY-1 internship in Internal Medicine and you may apply separately to that program through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS).

Program Highlights:

Equipment and Technology
We now have two Radiation Oncology facilities. The first is a 50,000-square-foot freestanding radiation facility located in Los Angeles and the newest is a 13,100-square-foot facility located in Ontario . Between the two sites we have the following equipment:

Therapy Section

  • Seven Varian 2100C dual energy (6 MeV and 15 MeV), MLC linear accelerators with multiple electron capability, IMRT and online portal vision.
  • One Varian IX Trilogy dual energy with CBCT/OBI and SRS/SRT capable.
  • One 6 MeV Varian linear accelerators.
  • One dedicated IMRT SRS Novalis ® System.
  • Varian high dose-rate afterloader for interstitial and intracavitary implants.
  • One RT Orthovoltage unit.
  • Variety of low dose-rate sources available for implantation.
  • Ultrasound and CT-based equipment for permanent prostate seed implants.

Planning Section

  • Two Varian simulators.
  • Three large CT’s dedicated to treatment planning.
  • Nine ADAC precision treatment and virtual sim planning systems, and three Brainlab TPS.
  • WAN connecting LAMC with Ontario uses IMPAC for the Oncology Management System and ADAC for the TPS.
  • Local area network connecting a number of work-stations used for treatment planning, statistical analysis of clinical data, and administrative support.

Research Section

  • Tumor registry of more than 52,000 patients treated at this facility.
  • Access to on-site biochemistry laboratory to support a variety of radiation biology projects, with the following instruments:
    • Fully equipped tissue culture facility.
    • Becton-Dickenson FacStarPlus sorting flow cytometer.
    • Six centrifuges.
    • Four scintillation counters.
    • Facilities to support all types of molecular biology research, including Southern and Northing blotting, polymerase chain reaction, and immunophenotyping.