The new Australian medical schools: daring to be different

This is an extraordinary opportunity and very exciting, say the Deans of the new medical schools

With so many changes in medical education in the past decade in Australia and overseas, we might have expected a period of consolidation and stability. Not so, for seven new Australian medical schools are now at various stages of development. Except for the James Cook University medical school in north Queensland, which opened in 2000, these are the first new medical schools in Australia in 30 years. We talked to the Deans of the five schools which are closest to opening to find what has been happening and what they hope to achieve.