Introduction

The diseases in hematology separate broadly into classical and malignant conditions, with some overlap with the field of oncology. Many of the classical hematologic disorders occur in the context of hospitalization and treatment (e.g., transfusion reactions, venous thromboembolism, heparin-induced thrombocytopenia) and are essential for internal medicine residents to understand. As you will likely treat many patients who have concurrent hematologic malignancies, this rotation guide contains a brief overview of those.

This rotation guide is divided into the following sections:

See the Oncology rotation guide for an overview of common complications of chemotherapy, superior vena cava (SVC) syndrome, and tumor lysis syndrome (TLS).

Nathan T. Connell, MD, MPH, FACP, is an associate physician in the Hematology Division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is the Clinical Chief of Hematology at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital and a member of the active staff at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

This rotation guide was developed by a collaborative team of contributors, including:

Writers: James O’Connell, MB MSc; Ahmad Zaheen, MD MSc; Ramya Ramaswami MBBS MRCP (UK) MPH; Andrea Merrill, MD (NEJM Fellows)
Peer Reviewers: Tem Bendapudi, MD; Ariela Marshall, MD; Alex Herrera, MD; Bhavna Seth, MD; and Hanny Al-Samkari, MD
Section Expert: Nathan T. Connell, MD, MPH, FACP
Senior Editor: Ole-Petter Hamnvik, MB BCh BAO, MMSc
Last Updated: May 2024 by Rebecca Zon, MD