A short history of the Board of Examiners (1976–1997)

Summary

The Board of Examiners was created to examine candidates for the Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine, and to be a custodian of standards in the discipline. The Board comprises senior pharmaceutical, regulatory physicians and others from related and relevant disciplines, such as clinical pharmacology and toxicology, of whom several are regularly involved in other postgraduate and undergraduate examinations.

The syllabus for the Diploma Examination has been adopted by the International Federation of Associations of Pharmaceutical Physicians as a world-wide template in planning the training of pharmaceutical physicians. It indicates the scope of a discipline, often in general terms, and a curriculum defines the content of the actual training.

The Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine was first awarded in 1976, and since then it has offered physicians a postgraduate qualification which indicates that they have achieved a level of knowledge and ability in the discipline beyond the level other doctors may possess. The essence of an award of a British postgraduate diploma in various clinical specialties conveys that a standard has been reached by the doctor which is sufficient to allow him or her to assume certain duties that a medical graduate cannot otherwise undertake and to apply for certain clinical posts.

The need for specified training was a major aspect of the original Diploma proposals. Candidates had to complete a period of study covering specific topics, as defined by the syllabus. A part-time residential course was set up in order to provide a 2-year training programme and to offer a consistent standard of training for the delegates. These initial decisions invoked standards in pharmaceutical medicine and, in order to fulfil them, created a framework of training and of assessment for novice pharmaceutical physicians which remains today.

The Board of Examiners, which was directly responsible to the three Royal Colleges of Physicians in the UK, was transferred to the Faculty in 1993, once the responsibilities of the Board of Examiners had been finally agreed. In addition to the Diploma Examination, it now assumed responsibility for the future assessment of physicians for Membership of the Faculty. Once the transitional arrangements (‘grandfather clause’) for admission of Members ended, it was necessary to assess trainees who had completed 4 years of training in pharmaceutical medicine. The exact nature of this examination had been debated in the preceding years, and eventually the Faculty decided to grant Membership based on a candidate’s submitted dissertation. The Board of Examiners proposed and introduced changes to the process. It also recommended initiatives to the Faculty aimed to help candidates and supervisors.