Trainees Who Exited Post-M.D. Training Between
November 1, 2003 AND November 1, 2004
(at a rank level consistent with completion of training)

Beginning with the "2000" exit cohort, physicians who left a training program prior to completing a sufficient number of years of training required for certification from any of Canada's three certification organizations (The College of Family Physicians of Canada, le Collège des médecins du Québec and The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada) were not included in the estimated practice entry cohort. The CAPER Policy Committee agreed to this change in the definition of the practice entry cohort because unrestricted licensure in each province and territory of Canada requires certification in either Family medicine or a specialty. Physicians who exit training prior to completion of their program would not have the qualifications for full licensure in Canada.

Other than this change in exit criteria, the exit groups will be presented in the same four groups as in previous CAPER publications.

1. Graduates of Canadian Faculties of Medicine
   
   
   1. Physicians who earned the M.D. degree in Canada who went directly through post- M.D. training and are entering practice for the first time (the new entry cohort).
      
      
   2. Physicians who earned the M.D. degree in Canada who have re-entered training after having already had a period of practice in Canada (the re-entry cohort).
   
   
2. Graduates of Foreign Medical Schools
   
   
   1. Graduates of foreign medical schools who were Canadian citizens /permanent residents on July 1 of their last year of post-M.D. training (A small re-entry cohort has been isolated from this group). These physicians would have the legal status necessary to work in Canada.
      
      
   2. Graduates of foreign medical schools who held a temporary employment visa while in their last year of post-M.D. training. It is assumed that these physicians will not enter practice in Canada in view of their visa status and they are not included in the practice entry cohort.
   
   
3. Isolation of the New Entry and Re-Entry Groups of Graduates of Canadian Faculties of Medicine
   

   Table 1 compares the proportion of trainees in each field of training for the new entry (1410 trainees) and re-entry (91 trainees) group of graduates of Canadian faculties of medicine in the exit group.

   In the new entry group, 517 (36.7%) of the cohort were exiting from Family medicine programs, and 893 (63.3%) were exiting from specialty programs: 601 (42.6%) from medical specialties, 20 (1.4%) from lab medicine specialties and 272 (19.3%) from surgical specialties. (The 7 Palliative medicine physicians were included in the specialties total.)

   In the re-entry group, only 21 (23%) of the physicians were completing Family medicine programs and most of them were in the programs giving additional training beyond the 2-year Family medicine program. The majority of the residents (77%) were in specialty training programs.

4. Graduates of Foreign Medical Schools
   

   The two groups of exiting graduates of foreign medical schools have been compared in Table 2. Of the trainees expected to stay in Canada, 114 (42.2%) exited from Family medicine training programs and 156 (57.8%) exited from specialty training programs. Altogether, 270 Canadian citizen International Medical Graduates exited from training in 2004.

   Table 3: Trainees Exiting Canadian Training Programs Between November 1, 2003 and November 1, 2004 ( at a rank level consistent with completion of training).

   Four main exit groups have been isolated and a small group of re-entry graduates of foreign medical schools has also been noted.

Estimated Practice Entry Cohort (Table I-7)

The estimate is based on the number of new physicians entering medical practice in Canada via the post-M.D. training programs: The new entry Canadian M.D. graduates and the new entry graduates of foreign medical schools who were Canadian citizens/ permanent residents. Thus, groups 1A and 2Ai from Table 3 are combined to form the estimated practice entry cohort. In 2004, there were 1669 new physicians in the estimated practice entry cohort, 1410 graduates of Canadian Faculties of medicine and 270 graduates of foreign medical schools. The following tables, H-1 and H-2 were prepared using the estimated practice entry cohort. Only physicians exiting at a rank level consistent with completion of training were included.