Forum: Australian Medical Schools Forum Location: Adelaide, Australia Medical School Tuition: US $28,388 per year Year Founded: 1975 Time required for MD: 4 Years Student Loans: Stafford and Private Loans Email: Email Flinders Medical School Survey: Flinders Medical School review

A Brief History of Australia by The World Factbook 2006

Aboriginal settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia about 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in the 17th century. No formal territorial claims were made until 1770, when Capt. James COOK took possession in the name of Great Britain. Six colonies were created in the late 18th and 19th centuries; they federated and became the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. The new country took advantage of its natural resources to rapidly develop agricultural and manufacturing industries and to make a major contribution to the British effort in World Wars I and II. In recent decades, Australia has transformed itself into an internationally competitive, advanced market economy. It boasted one of the OECD's fastest growing economies during the 1990s, a performance due in large part to economic reforms adopted in the 1980s. Long-term concerns include pollution, particularly depletion of the ozone layer, and management and conservation of coastal areas, especially the Great Barrier Reef. Read More

The School of Medicine is located within Flinders Medical Centre, an academic medical centre combining a general teaching hospital and medical school, which has an international reputation for integration and innovation in patient care, education and research. The Flinders University medical program is a four-year, graduate entry course, leading to the degree Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (BMBS). For those with some prior research experience, it is also possible to complete a combined BMBS/PhD degree.

Our course aims to produce doctors who

• practice competently, with empathy for patients and with recognition of their own limitations, and who will integrate health promotion and disease prevention with the management of illness and injury;
• understand that modern medical practice is based upon an integrated body of knowledge derived from the physical, biological, behavioural and social sciences;
• practise with due regard to available resources and cost-effective measures in a manner which encourages patients to assume increasing responsibility for their own health and to participate in decisions about their health care;
• are able to identify and solve problems related to health issues in the context of individual patient care and broader community concerns; and
• are able to undertake further training for any branch of medicine, including medical research, and who will maintain a lifelong commitment to continuing medical education.

Flinders Medical School Admissions

Flinders University School of Medicine has an Australasian quota of 80 places and an international quota of 30-32 places.  The medical school admissions requirements for both Australasian and International students have been designed to attract applicants with diverse backgrounds and experience. The Admissions Committee wishes to select students who have:

• the intellectual abilities necessary to complete the course as indicated by successful prior tertiary study
• the prerequisite knowledge and skills necessary to begin the course, assessed by an admissions test
• the personal characteristics considered necessary for success in both medical school and later practice, evaluated in a structured interview.

There are thus three elements in the medical school admissions process:

1. To apply, all candidates must have completed (or be in the final year of) an undergraduate degree, at least an Australian 3 year Bachelors degree or its equivalent.
2. Applications require results from an admissions test. For Australasian applicants, this must be the Graduate Australian Medical Schools Admission Test (GAMSAT). For International applicants, the test may be GAMSAT or the related North American test, MCAT.
3. The final element in the admissions process is a structured interview. Candidates are short-listed for interview mainly on the basis of overall GAMSAT score – or in the case of international applicants, GAMSAT or MCAT scores together with consideration of undergraduate record.

After interview, scores for all three components of the admissions process contribute to an Entry Score upon which Selection for offers of Medical School admission is based.

Flinders Medical School Cirriculum

The Graduate Entry Medical Program (GEMP) runs over 4 years. There are three major themes integrated into all four years:

• Doctor and Patient
  The practical communication, examination and procedural clinical skills essential to effective interactions between doctors and patients – and to constructive interaction with other health professionals.
• Knowledge of Health and Illness
  Knowledge of the structure, function and development of the normal human body at all levels of organisation, from molecular and cellular to the whole individual. Knowledge of the causes and consequences of disease, injury and abnormal development; and of evidence-based strategies for treatment and prevention of disease.
• Doctor, Profession and Society
  Consideration of health and illness in the wider contexts of family, cultural group, community and political and economic influences in society. A focus on the ethical and legal frameworks for medicine and on personal and interpersonal skills appropriate to lifetime medical practice.