Career paths
The career of a doctor involves further training beyond the medical degree. Successful completion of this additional training entitles the doctor to work as a specialist.
In Malaysia, upon completion of the medical course, students need to apply to the Ministry of Health Malaysia to do their housemanship in any of the public hospitals. The housemanship is for two years. On completion of housemanship, there is a two-year compulsory service in hospitals and clinics under the Ministry of Health Malaysia. Only after this would doctors be allowed to practice in facilities outside the Ministry of Health Malaysia. Please visit the Malaysian Medical Council’s website for details.
After completion of two years of their compulsory service, doctors can apply for the Master of Medicine course in the local public universities. Doctors have the option of continuing to work while pursuing the master’s program. The courses lead to the conferment of the specialist degree of Master of Medicine (M.Med) in the following areas:
- Internal Medicine
- Paediatrics
- Surgery
- Obstetrics and Gynaecology
- Orthopaedics
- Anaesthesiology
- Family Medicine
- Radiology
- Psychiatry
- Otorhinolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery
- Ophthalmology
- Emergency Medicine
- Pathology (Anatomic Pathology, Haematology, Medical Microbiology ,Clinical Immunology, Chemical Pathology)
- Community Medicine (Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Family Health, Health Management, Occupational Health, Health Education, Environmental Health, Oral Health)
- Surgery (Neurosurgery, Plastic Surgery)
Apart from this, students can opt to sit for the membership examinations of the Royal Colleges in the United Kingdom or Australia.
Upon successful completion of the master’s program or the membership examinations of the Royal Colleges, doctors will be gazetted as specialists after completion of a period of work under the supervision of senior specialists. They will also qualify to be on the specialists register of the Academy of Medicine Malaysia.