Medical specialist education and training in Australia

Phelan, Peter D

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2007.tb01477.x

Is it heading in the right direction?

The preceding article by Clarke and Morgan discusses a new form of education and training for medical specialists in Australia. The programs at the Australian School of Advanced Medicine at Macquarie University have pre-Fellowship (general specialist training) and post-Fellowship (subspecialist training) components.1 Here, I concentrate on the former. Both the formal university involvement and the new funding model proposed in the article have major implications that warrant widespread discussion.

University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC.

Correspondence: phelan@hcn.net.au

Competing interests:

Peter Phelan is Chairman of the Governing Board of Cabrini Health, a not-for-profit Catholic health care service.

1. Clarke R, Morgan MK. Education programs at the new Australian School of Advanced Medicine at Macquarie University. Med J Aust 2007; 187: 685-687. <MJA full text>
2. Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Education — post-graduate. Ottowa: RCPSC, 2006. http://www.rcpsc.medical.org/residency/ (accessed Oct 2007).
3. KPMG, for Consortium of Australian States and the Commonwealth. Costing and funding of teaching and training activities in Australian public hospitals [consultancy report]. Adelaide, 1996.
4. Peter Phelan Consulting. Medical specialist education and training: responding to the impact of changes in Australia’s health care system. Discussion paper for the AHMAC working party to research issues relevant to specialist medical training outside teaching hospitals. Canberra: Department of Health and Ageing, 2002. http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wcms/publishing.nsf/Content/36A9BD41833D656FCA2571D30008BB2E/$File/respall.pdf (accessed Oct 2007).

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