A proposal for funding and monitoring medical education supervision in expanded clinical settings--a 'meducation' card.

CONTEXT Entry to practice medical programs (graduate- and undergraduate-entry) in Australia are under considerable pressure to provide clinical training as a result of increased student numbers. At the same time modern medical curricula require the development of active placements in expanded settings to achieve graduate medical practitioners who are clinically able. These dual imperatives require a mechanism to fund and maintain the quality of clinical placements outside the traditional hospital setting. ISSUE For teaching outside traditional teaching hospitals the Australian government's Practice Incentives Program (PIP) currently provides a student-related payment of AU$100 for each half-day teaching session in a general practice setting. This payment is not linked to the quality of the placement and does not support clinical placements in other settings, for example specialist consulting rooms or allied health practices. SOLUTION This short communication proposes a 'meducation' card as an efficient funding mechanism to facilitate an expansion of quality clinical placements in expanded settings including specialist and allied health practices. This student meducation card would use current Medicare Australia infrastructure to facilitate the payment of clinical teachers in expanded settings. Meducation payments would only be available to practitioners and practices that maintain quality teaching practices certified by medical or allied health schools.