Continuing Professional Development

In 2023, the Medical Board of Australia revised the Registration standard: Continuing professional development. The revised standard is designed to strengthen CPD by supporting doctors’ access to relevant, effective, and evidence-based activities. The changes aim to provide doctors with an individualised approach to developing learning goals for maintaining and building personal and professional skills, with a view to ultimately fostering a lifelong learning mindset for doctors in Australia.

Requirements at a glance

Prepare your annual professional development plan (PDP).
Participate in learning activities for a minimum of 50 hours per annum.
Complete CPD across the range of CPD categories – Education Activities (EA), Reviewing Performance (RP) and Measuring Outcomes (MO), fulfilling the breakdown of these activities:
1. 25 hours across a mix of RP and MO, with a minimum of 5 hours in each
2. 2.5 hours in EA
3. 2.5 hours in any type of activity of a doctor’s choosing.
Have a CPD home (unless exempt).
Log your CPD activities and completions with your CPD home.
Declare your CPD home in your 2024/25 registration renewal (30 September for medical practitioners. For doctors with a provisional or limited registration, it is on the anniversary date of your registration being first granted).

Selecting a CPD home

As part of the new registration standard, all doctors need to select a suitable CPD home from 2024 (unless exempt). Areas to consider when selecting a CPD home include:

a college or non-college CPD home that aligns to your scope of practice
ability to meet any specialist high-level CPD requirements for your specialty
the range of content and format options available
how CPD is logged and reported
annual fees and other inclusions.

Doctors who are specialist trainees or specialist IMG graduates with limited registration in a specialist pathway are required to meet their CPD requirements through the relevant specialist medical college.

Do any exemptions apply?

Groups exempt from CPD requirements are:

medical students
interns and PGY2 doctors participating in an accredited training program
doctors with a non-practising or short term (less than four weeks) registration
doctors granted a CPD exemption from their CPD home due to a continuous absence from practice of at least six months for approved circumstances.