Under the Medical Council of Canada each provincial and territorial government is responsible for licensing physicians to practice medicine within its boundaries. The governments of the provinces and territories have mandated this responsibility to medical licensing authorities. The medical licensing authorities may be called: licensing authority, college of physicians and surgeons, or medical board.
The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) is a voluntary professional organization whose mandate is to promote the development of coordinated national policies for health care, to encourage responsibility and high standards in Canadian health care and to provide comprehensive support to member physicians in the areas of professional development and physician advocacy.
The Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) is a mutual medical defence organization operated by physicians for physicians. The CMPA was founded in 1901 by a group of Canadian doctors for their mutual protection against legal actions based on allegations of malpractice or negligence.
The Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) is an incorporated, not-for-profit organization which provides an orderly method for applicants to decide where to commence postgraduate year-one medical training and for program directors to decide which applicants they wish to enroll in postgraduate medical training.
The CaRMS Match occurs in two iterations; that is, the first match includes primarily the medical students graduating from Canadian medical schools in 2000. The second Match includes the students who were not matched in the first Match, together with all graduates from 1999 and earlier. This includes graduates of foreign medical schools and graduates of U.S. and Canadian medical schools.
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada is a national organization responsible for setting and maintaining the standards for postgraduate medical education, for the certification of specialist physicians and surgeons in Canada, and for promoting their continued education. The College benefits from the cooperation of its 30,000 members (Fellows), Canada's 16 faculties of medicine, and national specialty societies. The College is privately funded by its members and is not a licensing body. Residents are entitled to free membership.
