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Master of Medicine is a postgraduate Professional clinical degree awarded by medical schools to physicians following a period of instruction, supervised clinical rotations and examination. The degree usually takes three years to complete, but may take up to four years in some countries. It is awarded by both surgical and medical subspecialties and usually includes a dissertation component. The degree may complement an existing fellowship in the chosen specialty or be the sole qualification necessary for registration as a specialist.
The advantages of an MMed over membership certificated qualifications are that, whilst both groups are clinically competent at their levels, an MMed specialist can enrol into a four-year PhD plus fellowship and complete as consultants with a PhD, or do a two-year fellowship without a PhD. However, members of various professional colleges only advance to fellowship graduating as non-PhD consultants which reduces their academic ranking, as most universities insist on a PhD for their teaching staff. Another advantage of an MMed is that it takes less years to sub-specialise compared to professional membership which often hold practitioners as 'general specialists' even at fellowship level. It is envisaged that, most professional colleges will soon adopt the MMed and Fellowship/PhD certification system.
The following universities in the following countries award MMed degrees leading to specialists practice in the following subjects, as of May 2009: