THE COMMONWEALTH DOCTOR OF MEDICINE - A DEGREE OF UNCERTAINTY

The degree of doctor of medicine (MD) is awarded by many universities in the British Commonwealth as a senior, postgraduate, research thesis -based degree. Some of its features are that it is limited to medical graduates of the same university, but that the research on which the t hesis is based need not be conducted at the university awarding the de gree and that there is no requirement for formal supervision of candid ates. These characteristics, and its close similarities with the maste r of surgery (ChM) degree, may be responsible for the confusion that e xists about its quality and status in relation to the doctorate of phi losophy (PhD) and the 'higher' doctorates like doctor of science (DSc) . There is also uncertainty about its role in the training and selecti on of clinical consultants and physician scientists.