Acute - coming on sharply and often brief, intense and severe.
Acute hospitals - public and private hospitals which provide services primarily to admitted patients with acute or temporary ailments. The average length of stay is relatively short.
Alternative training settings - see 'expanded training settings'
Ambulatory - care provided to patients who are not admitted to the hospital, such as those who attend emergency departments and outpatients clinics. The term is also used to refer to care provided to patients of community-based (non-hospital) healthcare services.
Anaesthesia - involves the administration of specific drugs that interfere with the transmission of nerve impulses so as to reduce sensation. When applied to the whole body, it is known as general anaesthesia, and when applied to part of the body it is known as local or regional anaesthesia. Anaesthesia also involves other areas like intensive care, pain medicine and research. In Australia, it is essential that there is an anaesthetist present throughout the administration of any general anaesthetic.
Casemix - the range and types of patients (the mix of cases) treated by a hospital or other health service. This provides a way of describing and comparing hospitals and other services for planning and managing health care. Casemix classifications put patients into manageable numbers of groups with similar conditions that use similar healthcare resources, so that the activity and cost-efficiency of different hospitals can be compared. The Steering Committee has used casemix as a method for distinguishing between different training opportunities in different settings.
College - a medical specialist college which is accredited by the Australian Medical Council to provide specialised medical training. There are twelve such colleges in Australia; these are also referred to in the list of abbreviations.
Community based care - refers to community health services / centres and general practices.
Consultative specialties - specialties in which the primary contact between patient and doctor involves history taking, physical examination, provision of information (such as diagnosis, prognosis and health advice), and where necessary, the provision of medication.
Dermatology - specialty of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of skin disease and skin cancers.
Educational imperative - the educational need to expand training in order to optimally meet curricular requirements. The educational imperative was the impetus for the establishment of the Medical Specialist Training Steering Committee and its predecessors.
Emergency medicine - a field of practice based on the knowledge and skills required for the prevention, diagnosis and management of acute and urgent aspects of illness and injury affecting patients of all age groups with a full spectrum of episodic undifferentiated physical and behavioural disorders; it further encompasses an understanding of the development of pre-hospital and in-hospital emergency medical systems and the skills necessary for this development.
Expanded training settings - settings for training other than the traditional public tertiary hospital. The Medical Specialist Training Taskforce defined these settings to include rural and regional hospitals, private hospitals, private consulting rooms, community based settings and non-clinical settings.
Gastroenterology - a medical physician specialising in diseases of the gut, liver and associated organs.
General practice - the provision of primary continuing comprehensive whole-patient medical care to individuals, families and their communities.
General surgery - surgical treatment of diseases and defects of tissues, organs and other parts of the body not included within one of the other specialised surgical categories. In practice, general surgeons deal mostly with disorders of the abdomen and the breast and endocrine tissue, but are often called on to look after critically injured patients, and to provide initial care for many seriously ill patients.
Gynaecology - see 'obstetrics and gynaecology'
Medical Specialist Training Taskforce - a taskforce established by the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council in November 2003 to explore the expansion of training settings.
Medicare - a national, government-funded scheme that subsidises the cost of personal medical services for all Australians and aims to help them afford medical care.
Multidisciplinary care - care delivered in which health professionals from more than one discipline work together.
Non-clinical training settings - for example, research settings (laboratories or libraries) or simulation centres.
Obstetrics & gynaecology – a medical specialisation commonly involving prenatal delivery and postnatal care for women and their babies; gynaecological assessment, examination, diagnosis; and medical and operative management of conditions affecting women.
Ophthalmology - a medical specialty dealing with eye diseases.
Orthopaedic surgery - a medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and prevention of injuries and diseases of your body's musculoskeletal system. This complex system includes your bones, joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles and nerves and allows you to move, work and be active.
Paediatrics (general) - the specialty of diagnosis and management of infants, children and adolescents with undifferentiated and complex conditions.
Palliative care - management of people with terminal illnesses; emphasising the quality of life.
Pathology - general term for the study of disease, but often used more specifically for
diagnostic services which examine specimens, such as samples of blood or tissue.
Patient journey - the full continuum of an episode of patient care through the health system, from presentation with initial symptoms to diagnosis, treatment and including post-treatment consultation and monitoring.
Pilot projects - short-term government funded projects, which generally aim to scope the effectiveness of meeting the project’s objectives prior to the provision of long term funding.
Private hospital - a privately owned and operated institution, catering for patients who are treated by a doctor of their own choice. Patients are charged fees for accommodation and other services provided by the hospital and relevant medical and allied health practitioners.
Private patient - person admitted to a private hospital, or person admitted to a public hospital who decides to choose the doctor(s) who will treat them or to have private ward accommodation. This means they will be charged for medical services and accommodation.
Procedural specialties - specialties in which procedures, including operations (in which the skin is cut) or insertions of instruments (such as endoscopes) into body cavities, form a large part of the practice.
Psychiatrist - a specialist in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental illness and emotional problems. Because of their extensive medical and psychiatric training, psychiatrists are able to view illness in an integrated way by taking into consideration the related aspects of body and mind.
Public hospital - a hospital controlled by a state or territory health authority. In
Australia public hospitals offer free diagnostic services, treatment, care and
accommodation to all Australians who need them.
Public patient - a patient admitted to a public hospital who has agreed to be treated by doctors of the hospital’s choice and to accept shared ward accommodation. This
means that the patient is not charged.
Radiology - the use or study of X-rays and other rays to help view internal parts of the body as a guide to diagnosis as well as to treatment and its progress.
Service delivery the provision of clinical service to patients.
Setting - see 'training setting'
Simulated training training in which patients with actual conditions are not involved. Settings include training on manikins or training using actors as patients.
Specialist trainee - see 'trainee'
Surgery - see 'general surgery'
Supervisor a specialist who provides education and training to a specialist trainee. Supervisors are generally accredited to provide supervision by their specialist college and generally operate on a pro-bono basis.
Trainee - a registered doctor who is undertaking vocational (specialist) training under the auspices of a specialist college, usually in the setting of a teaching hospital. This term excludes general practice trainees, unless otherwise specified.
Training program - a program of educational experience and training set out by a specialist college, the completion of which (together with the completion of assessments) leads to the award of fellowship.
Training setting - an environment, usually a teaching hospital, in which a training program is undertaken by a trainee. Settings are usually accredited for training and may include hospitals, posts, placements, and programs.
Workforce imperative - the benefit of increasing workforce supply by expanding training to a wider range of settings. The existence of these benefits emerged during the Steering Committee’s consultation process.
Sources
AIHW 2006 Australia's Health No 10. AIHW Cat. No. AUS 73. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare: Canberra.American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. General Information http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/. Accessed 14 September 2006.
Australasian College for Emergency Medicine. Definition of Emergency Medicine. http://www.acem.org.au/about.aspx?docId=10. Accessed 14 September 2006.
Australasian College of Dermatologists. What is a dermatologist? http://www.dermcoll.asn.au/public/default.asp. Accessed 14 September 2006.
RACP (Royal Australasian College of Physicians) What are physicians? http://www.racp.edu.au/public/phys.htm. Accessed 14 September 2006.
RANZCP (Royal and New Zealand College of Psychiatry) What is a psychiatrist? http://www.ranzcp.org/publicarea/aboutpsy.asp#whatispsy. Accessed 14 September 2006.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Definition of General Practice and General practitioner. http://www.racgp.org.au/whatisgeneralpractice. Accessed 14 September 2006.