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The pathways to specialist registration for specialist international medical graduates (SIMGs) are the Expedited Specialist pathway and the Specialist pathway. The Board publishes data reports on both pathways.
The Expedited Specialist pathway is a fast-track pathway to specialist registration for SIMGs with qualifications on the Expedited Specialist pathway: accepted qualifications list.
SIMGs apply directly to the Medical Board for specialist registration. More information is on the Expedited Specialist pathway page.
The Board releases monthly summary reports of data on Expedited Specialist pathway applications and registrations. The first report was published in April 2025. Summary report data is collected by Ahpra.
The Board has developed Standards: Specialist medical college assessment of specialist international medical graduates. These Standards support specialist medical colleges in conducting assessments of SIMGs and explain what the Board expects of colleges when they are assessing SIMGs.
From 1 July 2014, specialist medical colleges report their Specialist pathway activity directly to the Board.
Reporting is annual by calendar year. The Board has published the data commencing from the first full calendar year of reporting (2015).
The Board now also publishes a one-page summary of data on the Specialist pathway.
Recommendation 25 of The Independent review of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for health professionals was:
The Medical Board of Australia to evaluate and report on the performance of specialist colleges in applying standard assessments of International Medical Graduate applications and apply benchmarks for timeframes for completion of assessments.
In response to this recommendation, the Medical Board commissioned Deloitte Access Economics to undertake an external review of the performance of the specialist medical colleges in their assessment of SIMGs.
The Board provided colleges with an opportunity to correct any errors of fact in the report. The following colleges provided corrections in April 2018:
The Board accepted the report and issued a media statement and a response to Deloitte’s recommendations.
