Written by Dr. Roupen Odabashian MD, FRCPC
Hematologist-Oncologist | Founder, MeDucation AI | Updated October 2026
The verdict: Most fellows do not need a multi-day board review course, and most programs should not default to paying for one every year. A course earns its seat time and its price tag in two situations: you want the CME/MOC credit bundle in one place, or you learn best from live, faculty-led lecture and want a single comprehensive pass through the blueprint before you start heavy question practice. If you're hematology-only, the GW Hematology Session or the Oakstone/Brigham Hematology course are the two worth comparing on price and format[1][2]. If you're medical oncology, GW's Oncology Session, the Oakstone/Brigham Oncology course, and ASH's review series (for hematology-malignancy-heavy content) are the realistic shortlist[3][4][5]. If your real constraint is money and PTO days rather than content gaps, skip the course and put the budget into a question bank you'll actually use daily — see our broader comparison of oncology board review question banks.
Conflict of interest, up front: I'm a practicing hematologist-oncologist and I founded MeDucation AI, which sells a physician-written heme/onc question bank and other board-prep tools. MeDucation does not run a live CME board review course, so this comparison is not me competing with these five programs — it's me telling you, as someone who sat the same exams, what a course actually buys you versus what a question bank buys you, and where I think your money is better spent.
Ranked summary: which course, if any, should you book?
Rank | Course | Best for | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | GW Hematology and Medical Oncology Best Practices (Live or On-Demand) | Fellows wanting the most exam-hours-for-dollar live option | Largest published credit total of the group and separable hematology/oncology sessions[1][6] |
2 | Oakstone/Brigham and Dana-Farber Board Review | Fellows who want a self-paced, lower-cost enduring product with a pass guarantee | Published Board Pass Guarantee and flexible online/USB formats[2][4] |
3 | ASH Hematology Review Series | Hematology-only candidates who want live weekly study sessions through the whole prep season | Structured weekly schedule from June through the fall boards with live discussion[5] |
4 | MD Anderson/Baylor Board Review Study Materials | Fellows who want purchasable study materials rather than a dated course | Sold as study materials rather than a scheduled live course[7] |
What do the 2026 heme/onc board review courses actually cost, and when do they run?
Prices and dates vary by format and by whether you book hematology-only, oncology-only, or the full course. Here is everything published, in one place.
Course | Organizer | Format | 2026 Dates | CME Credits | Physician Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
HemOnc Best Practices — Full Live | GW School of Medicine | Live (in-person or virtual) | Aug 7–13, 2026[8] | Up to 61.00 AMA PRA Category 1[1] | Price varies by registrant type[1] |
HemOnc Best Practices — Hematology Session (Live) | GW School of Medicine | Live (4-day) | Part of Aug 7–13, 2026 window[8] | Not separately published | Price varies by registrant type[1] |
HemOnc Best Practices — On Demand (Full) | GW School of Medicine | On-demand/enduring | 1-year access from purchase[6] | Up to 70.25 AMA PRA Category 1 (Full Course)[9] | $1,195 (Physician, Full Course)[9] |
HemOnc Best Practices — On Demand (Hematology Only) | GW School of Medicine | On-demand/enduring | 1-year access from purchase[6] | Up to 44.5 AMA PRA Category 1[9] | $1,195 (Physician)[9] |
HemOnc Best Practices — On Demand (Oncology Only) | GW School of Medicine | On-demand/enduring | 1-year access from purchase[6] | Up to 41.75 AMA PRA Category 1[9] | $1,195 (Physician)[9] |
Brigham and Dana-Farber Board Review — Hematology | Oakstone Publishing | Enduring online (+ optional USB/syllabus) | Release March 15, 2025; expires March 14, 2028[2] | Up to 21.75 AMA PRA Category 1[2] | Not published in the source checked |
Brigham and Dana-Farber Board Review — Oncology | Oakstone Publishing | Enduring online (+ optional USB/syllabus) | Release March 15, 2025; expires March 14, 2028[4] | Up to 28.25 AMA PRA Category 1[4] | Not published in the source checked |
ASH Hematology Review Series | American Society of Hematology | Live weekly study sessions + recorded lectures | Lectures from June 26, 2026; weekly through Oct 15, 2026[5] | Not published in the source checked | Not published in the source checked |
MD Anderson/Baylor HemOnc Board Review Study Materials | MD Anderson Cancer Center | Study materials (pre-order/purchase) | 2026 materials listed as available for pre-order[7] | Not published in the source checked | Not published in the source checked |
Is the GW Hematology and Medical Oncology Best Practices course worth it?
It is the most credit-dense live option on this list if you want an in-person or live-virtual format. GW's full live course is designated for up to 61.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits, and the on-demand full course goes even higher, up to 70.25 credits[1][9]. The course is explicitly structured around the ABIM exam blueprint, with named sessions on lymphomas, multiple myeloma, MDS, AML, BMT, lung, breast, GI, and genitourinary malignancies among others[3].
Is the Oakstone/Brigham and Dana-Farber Board Review worth it for hematology or oncology?
It's the one course on this list that explicitly guarantees your money back toward a retake if you don't pass. Oakstone states a "Board Pass Guarantee," offering extended access or credit toward a future program if you complete the course and don't pass your boards[2][4]. The hematology track carries up to 21.75 CME credits and covers molecular genetics, leukemia, lymphomas, and bone marrow disorders; the oncology track carries up to 28.25 credits and covers topics like multiple myeloma, Waldenström macroglobulinemia and amyloidosis, head and neck cancers, and NSCLC management[2][4].
The nuance: price is not published on the pages checked for this article, so you cannot comparison-shop it against GW's published figures without checking Oakstone's site directly at the time you book. It is also an enduring/self-paced product with a long access window — release was March 15, 2025, with termination March 14, 2028 — so it suits someone who wants flexibility over a live schedule, and it can be combined into a joint hematology-and-oncology bundle[2][4].
Is the ASH Hematology Review Series worth it?
It's the only option here built as a season-long live study cohort rather than a single multi-day event. ASH runs weekly subject-matter-expert lectures starting June 26, 2026, paired with live Thursday study sessions where participants work through board exam questions together, continuing through mid-October, timed to lead into the fall boards[5]. The published topic schedule is extensive and blueprint-organized: coagulation, hemolytic anemia, hemoglobinopathies, MDS, AML, ALL, lymphomas, CML, CLL, myeloma, and stem cell transplant/CAR-T, each assigned to a specific week[5].
The nuance: this is hematology-only, so you'd need to confirm cost directly with ASH before budgeting it against the other options[5]. If you're a hematology-track fellow who learns best from a slow, paced structure rather than a condensed multi-day sprint, this format is genuinely different from GW or Oakstone and worth a look for that reason alone.
Is the MD Anderson/Baylor board review worth it?
It's listed as study materials available for pre-order rather than a scheduled live or on-demand course with its own dedicated page of dates and pricing. MD Anderson's continuing education page lists "The 2026 MD Anderson Cancer Center/Baylor College of Medicine Hematology and Medical Oncology Board Review Study Materials" as available for pre-order/purchase, alongside separate offerings like an Advanced Oncology Certified Nurse Practitioner review course and a hospice/palliative medicine board review[7].
The nuance: because this is framed as study materials rather than a dated course with a syllabus and live sessions, it's harder to compare apples-to-apples against GW or ASH on format and hours. If you're specifically drawn to MD Anderson and Baylor's name recognition, go to their continuing education page directly to confirm what's actually included and at what price before assuming it mirrors a live course experience.
Is there a Harvard heme/onc board review course?
Based on the sources checked for this article, no Harvard-branded hematology-oncology board review course page was found. If a Harvard-affiliated board review course exists, it isn't something this article can verify or price — check Harvard's own CME site directly rather than relying on secondhand claims, including this one. We'd rather tell you we didn't find it than guess.
Course or question bank: which moves your score more?
Neither format has a published, independently verified study in these sources directly comparing score gains from a multi-day course versus daily question practice, so this answer is reasoning, not a cited statistic. A board review course gives you concentrated exposure to a huge volume of content in a short window, which is valuable if you have real content gaps or haven't done a structured pass through the blueprint at all. But boards reward retrieval under exam conditions, not passive exposure to slides — and a week of lecture, however well taught, does not simulate the single-best-answer, vignette-based format you'll actually sit for.
That's the case for doing daily board-style questions with full explanations as the backbone of your prep, and treating a course (if you take one at all) as a supplement early in your timeline rather than a late-stage cram. We've written in detail about how to sequence a multi-month plan around question volume and spaced review in our complete ITE and ABIM strategy guide, and about what the final stretch should look like once you've already done your content review in our week-by-week plan from October 10 to November 18. If you're choosing between booking a live course and buying a year of question-bank access, and you can only afford one, the evidence from how boards are actually structured points toward questions.
FAQ
Do I need a board review course to pass the ABIM Hematology or Medical Oncology exam?
No course on this list is a requirement — all are optional, paid continuing education products, not ABIM-mandated prerequisites. Whether one helps you depends on whether you have genuine content gaps a lecture format will fix, versus needing retrieval practice a course format doesn't provide.
Which course covers the most CME credit hours?
Based on published figures, GW's on-demand full course offers the most at up to 70.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits, compared with up to 61.00 for its live full course[9][1].
