The future of Australian medical education: a focus on technology.

us ma dri A tralia is undergoing considerable change in nagement of its health care systems. This is ven by the increase in complexity of patient illnesses and the public’s higher expectations of having access to safe, high-quality health care. Central to the success of Australia’s future health care systems will be the workforce that delivers health care services. Australia has increased the number of medical schools and accepted increased numbers of international medical graduates to address workforce shortages in medicine that have resulted from historical decisions. However, the increasing age of graduates, their shorter working weeks and, notwithstanding the recent increase in clinical placements, the limited amount of quality clinical time available per student, raise concerns about the sustainability of a well trained medical workforce.1 Equally significant as the reduction in clinical learning opportunities are the rapid rate of change in, and complexity of, treatments that junior medical officers will need to consider offering if the best interests of their patients are to be served. Work is underway on many fronts to ensure Australia maintains the quality of our medical graduates. At junior doctor level, development of an Australian Curriculum Framework (ACF) has provided an outline of the competencies expected of a junior medical officer,2 giving Australian universities and accredited hospital and general practice prevocational trainers a guide for their medical program development. To help sustain the medical education and training infrastructure to cope with increasing throughput, federal funding is being invested in simulations to augment clinical placement.3 Medical schools are finding new clinical placement opportunities in private hospitals, general practice clinics and nursing homes. However, even more training capacity will be needed to meet Australia’s future health care demands. Medical students require better scoping of what they ore