Quantity or quality? Implications for postgraduate medical training system in China.

Postgraduate medical training is an important part of the doctor training process. It is an essential requirement to ensure doctors are competent for their profession. 1 In most developed countries, postgraduate medical training is a well-established system, such as the Residency and Board examination in the USA and the Foundation and College examination in the UK. In addition, those training programmes are often very well regulated to reflect the knowledge for different specialties by their professional bodies. In contrast, such a system in China is not established , and the academic training system is used in lieu. A research degree such as master's or doctoral is considered as a formal professional training due to many historical reasons. 2 Traditionally, the training obtained after doctors have graduated is totally dependent on where they are working, and whom their supervising doctor is. Despite the reformation