News & events
Press release
Highlights from the Medical Council of Canada Annual Meeting
October 22, 2008
Ottawa – The Medical Council of Canada held its Annual Meeting in Ottawa from October 19 to 21, 2008 where it discussed professionalism in medicine, set its policy direction for the upcoming year, and affirmed the 2009 fees for its examinations.
“We had the opportunity to have some productive discussions about professionalism in medicine: how medical schools and regulatory authorities can collaborate to promote professional behavior throughout the learning continuum from student into a physician’s practice lifetime. The assessment of these behaviors is only one aspect. Once evaluated there is need to provide remedial training opportunities at all levels and co-operate to ensure there is appropriate follow-up,” said Dr. Ian Bowmer, Executive Director of the Medical Council of Canada.
The Council also approved in principle a governance model for the National Assessment Collaboration. This will help create a simplified co-ordinated national approach to assessing international medical graduates at the regional level. The Collaboration is currently focusing on developing an Objective Structured Clinical Examination that will assess the competency of international medical graduate candidates competing for postgraduate residency positions with the ultimate goal of assessing competency for entry into practice. Parallel processes are underway to have approval from provincial and territorial governments through the Advisory Committee on Health Delivery and Human Resources and to finalize a business plan involving the existing seven regional International Assessment Programs.
The examination fees that had been projected at the 2007 Annual Meeting were affirmed by Council: the 2009 fee for the Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination Part I will be $700 CAD and the 2009 fee for the Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination Part II (MCCQE Part II) will be $1650 CAD. Council also recognized the need for a significant increase in the 2010 fees. “Council,” explained Dr. Dennis Kendel, Chair of the Medical Council of Canada Finance Committee, “has directed that each examination be priced to ensure cost recovery. The MCCQE Part II has not had a significant fee change since 2004 and Council has used its reserves to subsidize the delivery of this examination. The fee also includes the cost of a decentralized delivery since the examination is administered at each university center housing a Faculty of Medicine. This saves candidates the expense of having to travel to a centralized examination centre.”
The Council honoured Dr. Glenn Regehr with its Outstanding Achievement Award for his extensive body of work in medical education, assessment and in refining the understanding of professionalism and how it relates to medical practice. Dr. Gordon Page was awarded the Dr. Louis Levasseur Award for his contributions over the past 25 years to the Medical Council of Canada.
Council announced the award of the first W. Dale Dauphinee Fellowship, which was given to Dr. Claire Touchie. Other business included modifying the Council’s by-laws to allow students in their final year of osteopathic medicine from a school accredited by the American Osteopathic Association to apply to the Medical Council of Canada Evaluating Examination and the Qualifying Examination Part I, and the decision to appoint an additional public member of Council to the Finance Committee.
The Medical Council of Canada’s vision is to achieve “the highest level of medical care for Canadians through excellence in evaluation of physicians.” It conducts over 12,000 assessments of medical students and graduates every year through its three examinations, offered in both official languages in sites across Canada, and in the case of its Evaluating Examination, in over 500 locations in 73 countries.
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For more information:
Jessica Hertzog
Communications Co-ordinator
Medical Council of Canada
613-521-6012, ext. 2277
jhertzog@mcc.ca
