Mission

To advance national heath care standards by ensuring the delivery of world leading musculoskeletal education to the country’s trainee medical professionals.

Vision

To have the defined musculoskeletal core competencies developed for implementation into the curricula of all Australian Medical Schools by 2010.

Objectives

To improve the delivery of musculoskeletal care in Australia by establishing a minimum national baseline in musculoskeletal education. This is to be achieved through the development, provision and maintenance of national multi-disciplinary core competencies targeted at medical students, doctors, allied health practitioners and patients.

To ensure that graduating Australian health care professionals are suitably equipped in the areas of musculoskeletal basic and clinical science to address the increasing impact of chronic musculoskeletal conditions such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis.

To ensure that graduating Australian health care professionals are suitably versed in the concept of “Chronic Disease Self-Management” (CDSM) as an integral part of patient management.

Goals

GOAL 1: NATIONAL CONSENSUS
To achieve a consensus amongst all stakeholders involved in the practice or education of Musculoskeletal Science on the need for national core competencies and to develop a plan of action to address this need.

GOAL 2: CORE COMPETENCY DEFINITION
To define and achieve agreement on the Musculoskeletal Core Competencies with respect to Red Flag Emergencies, a standardised National Physical Examination and Core Basic and Clinical Musculoskeletal Science.

GOAL 3: CORE COMPETENCY ASSESSMENT
To ensure that the defined “core” knowledge and skills are being appropriately assessed by developing strategic assessment philosophies and assisting in the development of both formative and summative assessment tools and strategies.

GOAL 4: CHRONIC DISEASE SELF-MANAGEMENT
To improve the quality of life of patients with chronic musculoskeletal conditions by ensuring that heath care professionals are appropriately educated and trained to effectively empower patients with necessary skills, confidence and resources to be actively involved at the centre of their own health care.

Our Guiding Principles

In pursuing its goals and implementing its strategies, the Project for the Development of National Core Competencies in Musculoskeletal Basic and Clinical Science will be guided by a commitment to the following principles:

1. Quality And Excellence
   At the very heart of this project is a drive, desire and passion to improve on past practice with a view to continuing to improve the quality of life of all Australians. We believe that the pursuit of excellence is a good in itself, and that all project activities should be judged against the highest ethical, intellectual, educational and professional standards.
2. Multidisciplinary Effort
   We recognise that an initiative with such a high horizon cannot succeed without the support and input of all stakeholder groups involved in musculoskeletal medicine. We acknowledge the all-inclusive approach of the International ‘Bone and Joint Decade Group’ in its proposal for an “International Musculoskeletal Core Curriculum” and promise to be guided by this approach when developing the Australian Musculoskeletal Core Competencies.
3. Evidence Based Best Practice
   We recognise that science, scientific principles and the scientific method underline medical education and the medical profession as a whole. To this end, any educational tools and recommendations developed as result of the initiative will, whenever possible, be based on the highest levels of scientific evidence and will constitute world’s best practice.
4. Stratified Pyramid Of Knowledge
   As one of the key principles underlining this project, we hold as both critically important and self-evident that different types of knowledge require different levels of emphasis and retention. In alignment with this credo, the project will stratify knowledge, skills and attitudes into four primary categories namely; (a) must know; (b) should know; (c) may know and, where appropriate (d) need not know.
5. Core Competencies Are Core
   By their very definition, core competencies embody a bare minimum, critical mass of knowledge skills and attitudes which, at some juncture are agreed to by all stakeholders. We believe without reservation that if core competencies are to continue to remain core, then they need to be specifically defined, ratified, maintained and most importantly appropriately assessed.
6. Anticipation & Responsiveness
   We pride ourselves on our flexibility and innovativeness in anticipating, meeting and mastering the challenges of an ever-changing world.
7. Accountability
   We are committed to developing governance and management practices which assure the quality of our planning, and accountability measures including systematic internal and external reviews which assure the quality and continuous improvement of our processes and outcomes.
8. Integrity
   We accept the challenge to set exemplary standards of integrity in all aspects of our affair. We will refuse to accept anything less than the very highest standards of probity in every element of our function.

Steering Committee

Professor Justin Beilby (Chair),
Medical Deans of Australia and New Zealand
Associate Professor Mellick Chehade (Project Director),
The Australian Orthopaedic Association (AOA)
Associate Professor Geoff McColl,
The Australian Rheumatology Association (ARA)
Associate Professor Richard Osborne (Deputy Chair),
Public Health and Epidemiology
Professor Rebecca Mason,
The Australian and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society (ANZBMS) and The Endocrine Society of Australia (ESA)
Professor Helen McCutcheon,
The Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery (CDNM)
Professor Fred Ehrlich,
The Australian Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine (AFRM)
Mr James Schomburgk,
The Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA)
Mr Chad Donnelly,
The Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA)
Dr Xavier Yu,
The Australian Medical Association’s Council of Doctors in Training (AMAsDT)
Professor Peter Brooks,
The Committee of Deans of Health Sciences (CDHS)
Mr Ben Horgan,
The Consumers’ Health Forum (CHF) / Arthritis WA / BJD Australia
Dr Morton Rawlin,
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP’s)
Ms Kerry Dent (Observer),
The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA)
Ms Jeanette Scott (Observer),
The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA)
Mr Mick Hoare (Observer),
The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA)

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