An innovative virtual fellowship leveraging global and regional mentorship to foster pediatric neuro-oncologists in low/middle-income countries

Abstract BackgroundMost children with central nervous system (CNS) tumors reside in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), with limited availability of trained pediatric neuro-oncologists. Methods Using a series of structured interviews of physicians who had served as global mentors or mentees in pediatric oncology, we identified mentorship, leadership, and clinical training as key components necessary to virtually train pediatric oncologists in LMICs to become leading pediatric neuro-oncologists while they remain in their home countries. Thus, the St Jude Global Virtual Pediatric Neuro-oncology Fellowship (VPNOF) was designed to incorporate mentorship with global and loco-regional mentors to aid in each fellow's career and institutional goal setting and clinical training involving virtual tumor boards and didactics and ad-hoc case discussions, enabling fellows to manage patients at their home institution. Fellows traveled to their mentors' institutions twice for four-week clinical rotations. Results In 2022 and 2023, eleven fellows were selected, representing 10 LMICs. The 2-year fellowship led to the establishment of multi-disciplinary approaches, increased patient volume, increased use of evidence-based practices, 33 abstract presentations, and publication of four journal articles. Conclusions The VPNOF is an innovative approach leveraging global mentorship to train pediatric oncologists in resource-limited settings to become pediatric neuro-oncologists, which has led to the successful implementation of new practice paradigms to improve the quality of care for children with CNS tumors in LMICs.