2015
The Australian Medical Council welcomes new Office Bearers and Directors
The Australian Medical Council (AMC) Annual General Meeting in Sydney on 20 November has marked the appointment of a new President and Deputy President of the AMC. Associate Professor Jillian Sewell AM was welcomed as the new AMC President and Professor David Ellwood as the new Deputy President.
Associate Professor Sewell is a principal paediatric specialist and Deputy Director of the Centre for Community Child Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne, and a leader in paediatric education. Professor Sewell has been a Director and member of Council since 2009. She is the former Chair of the committee responsible for accreditation of specialist medical programs, the AMC Specialist Education Accreditation Committee, and now chairs the AMC Recognition of Medical Specialties Advisory Committee.
Professor Ellwood is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Griffith University School of Medicine and Director of Maternal–Foetal Medicine at Gold Coast University Hospital. Professor Ellwood also chairs the AMC Medical School Accreditation Committee.
Download the full media release (PDF 259KB).
Workshop Report: Collaborating for Patient Care – Interprofessional Learning for Interprofessional Practice
On 9 June 2015, the Australian Medical Council, in collaboration with the Australian Pharmacy Council, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council, and the Council on Chiropractic Education Australasia, convened a workshop with the aim of improving delivery of coordinated interprofessional education between health professions in Australia.
This workshop was held with support and input from the Health Professions Accreditation Councils Forum (the Forum). It brought together representatives of the regulated health professions’ national boards and accreditation authorities, self-regulating health professions, education providers, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), representatives of government health departments and academics working in this field.
The workshop explored a common understanding of what is meant by interprofessional education, saw presentations and discussion of international examples of good interprofessional education and assessment, and examined implications for accreditation functions.
Following the workshop, the regulated health professions’ accreditation councils, national boards and AHPRA meet on 10 June to discuss what the workshop outcomes could mean for accreditation processes, and there was a short meeting of the Forum to discuss next steps.
A report of the workshop, its outcomes and subsequent meetings and actions has been prepared and is available to download here.
Download the full report (PDF 7700KB)
AMC and ECFMG Partner to Enhance the Process for Evaluating the Medical Credentials of Australia’s International Medical Graduates
The Australian Medical Council (AMC) is pleased to announce its collaboration with ECFMG® to incorporate ECFMG’s Electronic Portfolio of International Credentials (EPICSM) into the process for evaluating the medical credentials of Australia’s international medical graduates (IMGs). EPIC provides AMC with ECFMG’s rigorous, primary-source verification while offering additional benefits such as a secure, web-based platform for authenticating physician credentials and paperless processing and recordkeeping. For IMGs, EPIC offers a service that they can use throughout their careers to build a digital portfolio of verified credentials related to their medical education, training, and registration/licensure.
Read the full press release.
The Australian Medical Council’s response to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons’ (RACS) Report of the Expert Advisory Group on discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment
Download the full media release (PDF 268KB).
The Directors of the Australian Medical Council grant accreditation to the Flinders University, School of Medicine’s medical programs to 31 March 2021
The Australian Medical Council is the national accreditation body for the medical profession. It has recently completed an assessment of the Flinders University, School of Medicine’s medical programs.
Download the full media release (PDF 397KB).
The Directors of the Australian Medical Council grant accreditation to the University of Auckland, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences’ medical programme to 31 March 2022
The Australian Medical Council is the national accreditation body for the medical profession. It has recently completed an assessment of the University of Auckland, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences’ medical programme.
Download the full media release (PDF 264KB)
The Directors of the Australian Medical Council confirm the accreditation of the University of Adelaide, Faculty of Health Sciences’ medical program to 31 March 2018
The Australian Medical Council is the national accreditation body for the medical profession. It has recently completed an assessment of the University of Adelaide, Faculty of Health Sciences’ medical program.
Download the full media release (PDF 362KB).
The Directors of the Australian Medical Council grant accreditation to the Griffith University, School of Medicine’s medical programs to 31 March 2021
The Australian Medical Council is the national accreditation body for the medical profession. It has recently completed an assessment of the Griffith University, School of Medicine’s medical programs.
Download the full media release (PDF 284KB).
AMC Accreditation Update of Specialist Medical Colleges: June 2015
The Australian Medical Council (AMC) has recently completed a number of accreditation assessments of training programs for medical specialists.
Download the full media release (PDF 326KB).
The Directors of the Australian Medical Council confirm the accreditation of the University of Queensland, School of Medicine’s medical programs to 31 March 2017
The Australian Medical Council is the national accreditation body for the medical profession. It has recently completed an assessment of the University of Queensland, School of Medicine’s medical programs.
Download the full media release (PDF 226KB).
Stakeholder consultation on the review of the Pre-employment Structured Clinical Interview (PESCI) Guidelines – update August 2014
The Australian Medical Council consulted on the review of the guidelines and approval criteria for the Pre-employment Structured Clinical Interviews (PESCI) earlier this year and is grateful for the stakeholder contribution to this review.
The AMC received comments on the revisions from 18 organisations and individuals. The feedback indicated overall support for the proposed revisions and the division of the document into Part A: PESCI Guidelines and Part B: Criteria for approval of PESCI providers with further reordering and expansion of the approval criteria.
In addition to clarifying wording where feedback suggested this was required, the AMC has made further changes as a result of the feedback including:
- In the PESCI Guidelines:
- Replacing the risk matrix included in the previous guidelines with notes on the factors to consider in determining the degree of risk of a position
- Expanding section 4 of the guidelines which indicate when a PESCI is required and removing section 5 on when a PESCI is not required
- In section 6, adding additional information on the Medical Board of Australia’s responsibilities.
- In the Criteria for AMC approval of PESCI providers:
- Specifying that a minimum of four clinical scenarios are included in the PESCI
- Emphasising that the interviews should explore performance and capacity not only knowledge
- Addressing questions about supervision guidelines by referring to Medical Board of Australia guidelines.
- Increasing the timeframe for PESCI providers to return feedback reports to applicants from 7 to 14 days.
- Streamlining the requirements for annual reports from approved PESCI providers to the AMC.
As this review has been the joint work of the AMC and the Medical Board of Australia, the AMC has submitted a revised version of the Pre-employment Structured Clinical Interview Guidelines and Criteria for AMC approval of PESCI providers to the Medical Board of Australia for its approval. The revised guidelines and procedures together with the PESCI report to the Medical Board of Australia and the PESCI Outcome report to the interviewee will be placed on the AMC website when these processes are complete. The new guidelines and approval criteria will apply from 1 January 2015.
The AMC is developing a schedule for progress reporting for providers which will provide information on the date for the first annual progress report and the annual reporting requirements. The matters to be addressed in the report are outlined in the Approval Criteria (Part B of the document).
Once the Pre-employment Structured Clinical Interview Guidelines and Criteria for AMC approval of PESCI providers and templates are finalised they will be circulated to stakeholders and placed on this website. The AMC will correspond separately with providers to set progress reporting schedules and to provide a template for progress reporting.
AMC launches website for delivering workplace based assessment resources
In Australia and internationally there is a growing interest in the use of workplace based assessment to assess clinical skills and competence. With the support of the Australian Government Department of Health, the AMC has developed a website to deliver WBA resources for a variety of users: assessors, candidates, WBA program providers, health education institutions and training and development teams. The WBAonline website will help AMC-accredited providers of WBA programs to improve and standardise their programs and give AMC candidates a very clear picture of what to expect when undertaking those programs.
See the website at wbaonline.amc.org.au.
Download the full media release (PDF 299KB).
Board and AMC launch new intern framework
The Medical Board of Australia and the Australian Medical Council have finalised a national framework for medical internship, being implemented in 2014.
The new framework marks a major step towards national consistency in intern training and was made possible by the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme.