Establishing a Postgraduate Qualification in Remote Health Care

The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) provides medical care for the scientists and support staff working on British scientific bases and research vessels in the Antarctic. The BAS directs significant resources towards medical research, so a doctor who does not complete the research component of the pro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare
Main Authors: Haston, W, Horsley, H, Milne, A
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publications 1996
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1357633x9600200208
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1357633X9600200208
Description
Summary:The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) provides medical care for the scientists and support staff working on British scientific bases and research vessels in the Antarctic. The BAS directs significant resources towards medical research, so a doctor who does not complete the research component of the programme of training and medical duties represents a partially wasted investment. Additionally, the professional experience gained by the doctor is appropriate for a postgraduate qualification. For these reasons, the training, clinical placement and research undertaken by doctors were formalized as a masters degree in 1992. The objectives of the MSc degree were to optimize the benefits of the training and research for Antarctic doctors and their patients, and to improve the quality of the research output. In the three years before the degree was introduced, only 25% of doctors produced a useful research output. Following the introduction of the MSc, this figure rose to 88%.