CPD has changed from 2023 - what does this mean for you?

From 1 January 2023, the Medical Board of Australia (MBA) introduced some major changes for all doctors practising in Australia. The new requirements for CPD from 2023 are as follows.

Doctors are required to:

• choose an accredited ‘CPD Home’ by January 2024

• complete an annual Professional Development Plan

• accrue a minimum of 50 hours of annual CPD

• complete education in three (3) core categories of CPD (see below)

• complete CPR every 3 years.

CPD Homes

All registered medical practitioners are required to choose a CPD Home. The Australian Medical Council has accredited all Medical Colleges and the AMA as CPD homes.  Once aligned with a home, doctors must meet the requirements of the CPD program of their chosen CPD home. 

Medcast is not a CPD home but will continue to be an accredited activity provider with the RACGP and ACRRM.  In addition, we are now a Certified Learning Provider with the AMA.  Medcast courses will be accredited with these homes and completions reported on a regular basis.

If you have a different CPD home you can still access our learning, track your progress on the Medcast CPD tracker, download certificates for CPD activities you complete and self-report your hours.

Medcast does not require members to be aligned to a specific CPD Home to access our education. 

CPD Hours and Categories

CPD is now measured in hours and all doctors, regardless of whether they are full or part time, will need to complete 50 hours per year.  CPD is divided into three categories: 

Medcast has a range of high-quality CPD activities across the Reviewing Performance, Measuring Outcomes, and Educational Activities categories. Our CPD tracker gives you real-time visibility of the number of hours you have completed in each category. 

In addition, the tracker allows you to:

• log time spent on informal activities such as reading blogs or listening to podcasts 

• log any CPD activity no matter where it was completed

• upload evidence of learning such as certificates

• add reflections and learning outcomes

• export annual CPD reports.

CPR 

CPR competency is required every 3 years. Medcast’s Online BLS / CPR makes meeting the CPD component easy and flexible, with the highest quality educators and online learning.

The Medcast online Basic Life Support training includes CPR assessment that can be completed anytime, anywhere.

Professional Development Plan

A mandatory requirement of the new program is an annual Professional Development Plan outlining how you will achieve 50 hours of learning.  The plan is designed to ensure you meet your compulsory CPD obligations (relevant to your registered scope of practice) and reflect upon your progress.

CPD homes will provide members with guidance and, in some cases, templates and activities for completing a Professional Development plan.  Completion of the plan and reflection will accrue CPD hours (the number and type depends on your CPD Home).

CPD program-level requirements

The MBA requires CPD homes to provide guidance to medical practitioners on how to complete education that meets the requirements across the following 3 categories:

• Culturally safe practice

• Health inequities

• Professionalism and ethical practice.

How does Medcast Plus, our premium CPD subscription, help?

Medcast Plus is your complete CPD solution in one easy membership. Rather than competing with the CPD Homes, Medcast works with all CPD Homes to ensure maximum flexibility for our members. 

Medcast Plus includes:

• Hundreds of hours of premium learning across all 3 CPD categories.

• Live and on-demand education enables you to access learning at a time convenient to you.

• A range of content including clinical topics, business skills and wellbeing education.

• A variety of  formats e.g. small group learning, live webinars, mini-audit, case based elearning.

• 20% off face-to-face workshops including BLS, ALS & PALS resuscitation courses. 

So by signing up to Medcast Plus you can choose from new topics and activities regularly throughout the year, or access the ever-growing library at any time. 

Frequently asked questions

Below is a FAQ section to help you understand the specifics of these changes.

Is Medcast a CPD Home? 

No, Medcast is not a CPD home. A full listing of CPD homes approved by the Medical Board of Australia can be found here.

We accredit our learning and report completions to RACGP, AMA and ACRRM CPD homes. However members of all CPD homes are able to access our learning and self-report CPD. Our CPD dashboard makes it easy to keep track of the learning you have completed via Medcast and log informal learning or external activities.

How do I know which CPD activity hours are allocated to each activity on Medcast? 

Hours for each activity type (Education Activity/ Reviewing Performance/ Measuring Outcomes or a combination) are labelled against all Medcast education that have been accredited. There are also filters in our course catalogue that allow you to search by activity type. 

When you complete an activity, have advised Medcast of your CPD home and provided us with your RACGP, ACRRM ID or AHPRA number (for AMA) on registration, your hours will be reported to the respective CPD homes.  You can update your details on your My Profile page to ensure that your hours are reported in a timely manner.

Are clinical audits (QI programs) still a highly recommended way to upskill GPs to provide quality patient care and outcomes? 

Yes, audits and mini-audits are recommended activities to achieve Measuring Outcomes hours.  This type of activity uses data from a GPs work to reflect on current evidence and best practice in a particular area. 

Medcast mini-audits are designed to be a simple approach to apply best practice evidence to practice and are captured in an easy to use format on our site.  Our audits give you confidence to deliver best practice recommendations across a range of therapeutic areas, you will also obtain valuable Measuring Outcomes and Reviewing Performance CPD hours. You can view all our current audit activities here. 

When are my CPD hours reported to RACGP, ACRRM and AMA? 

CPD hours are reported every 2 weeks to RACGP, ACRRM and the AMA.  If there is a delay in your points appearing on your CPD Home account, please check that we have your nominated home and number via your My Profile page.  We cannot report completions without your CPD home and relevant member number.

How do I sign up to access Medcast education? 

You can create a Medcast account for free and start to access our Educational Activities immediately. We have an extensive catalogue of case-based elearning, recorded webinars, and blogs. In addition, view our calendar for live events.

Subscribe to Medcast Plus (here) for our complete CPD package, including access to our full suite of Measuring Outcomes, Reviewing Performance activities, and premium Educational Activities. 

What about CPR and Resuscitation? 

For General Practitioners, each triennium, you will need to complete a Basic Life Support course with a Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) competency. While the other tasks are annual, you will have three years to update your CPR skills. This is a RACGP & AMA requirement, not mandated by the MBA. 

The Medcast Basic Life Support course - which can be completed remotely wherever you are in the world - meets the Australian Resuscitation Council guidelines for BLS. We also have a range of ALS and PALS courses which provide CPR certification.

ACRRM Fellows must complete an Advanced Life Support course every 3 years. Learn more. Upcoming ALS workshops can be found here.

The Medical Board of Australia has determined that all CPR courses will only be eligible for hours under the Educational Activities CPD type.