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qualification; it does

forever; it is a description of your

how high the bar sits.

grown disillusioned by the enduring

is for a case to end up in court— a

not fall within the Australian qual-

commitment to the profession, to

But other colleges have sounded

dysfunction of their college’ s leader-

money-draining prospect for any

ification framework,” Professor

ongoing learning and education.”

similar warnings. And they, too,

ship and want out.

potential protagonist.

Ung says.

He says the reforms allowing

have made clear that the use of post-

The idea they have come up with

Professor Ung is not keen either:

“ If you want a surgical qualifi-

independent CPD

nominals demands

is for the specialist to use the post-

“ The last thing I would want to see is

cation that is enduring, you have to do a master’ s of surgery, a PhD or an MPhil.

“ When you get a degree, you do not have to do one more thing. You

homes, introduced by the Medical Board of Australia back in 2023,“ lowered the bar”, with

‘ It cannot be carried with you forever.’

a specialist’ s continued college membership.

What they may not know is that

nominal but to include the year the fellowship was conferred. So, you end up with, say, FRACGP( 1984) or FRACP( 2010) or FRACS( 2020).

This can then be used without

a college getting into that. And that is not what we are about.” So what would be the response?“ We would inform the ex-member that they should not be using

can forget everything you have learnt

the risk of CPD for

there have been

any legal complications because it

the postnominal, that it is false rep-

but still have the degree.

doctors becoming a tick-box exercise.

discussions at the grassroots about

simply denotes a fact— at least, that

resentation to display it if they are

“ But having a postnominal indi-

Supporters will probably stress

workarounds to the membership fine

is the argument.

not actually a member of the college.

cates you are a professional com-

here that the colleges still dictate

print. This applies particularly to

At this stage, it seems the only

“ It would be telling the public that

mitted to ongoing CPD. It cannot be

the standards a specialist’ s CPD

those members of the Royal Austral-

way to test the powers of the colleges

you stand for this commitment to the

something you just carry with you

must meet, that they still position

asian College of Physicians who have

to dictate the use of the postnominal

profession when you do not.”

Jamie Thannoo AS healthcare becomes smarter,

will doctors become dumber?

The rise of AI assistants that

write consultation notes or

provide a second set of virtual

eyes is fuelling concerns that

doctors may grow too comfortable

with— or even dependent

on— the technology.

A study in The Lancet Gastroenterology

and Hepatology suggests

it is already happening in

some areas.

Researchers at the Academy

of Silesia in Poland examined

the work of 19 doctors across

four endoscopy centres before

and after the introduction of

an AI tool in 2021.

They compared colonoscopies

on 795 patients over three

months before the AI rollout

against 648 non-AI-assisted

colonoscopies performed after

doctors had been exposed to

the technology.

Adenoma detection rates

from non-AI-assisted colonoscopies

fell from 28.4 % to 22.4 %

after the AI’ s introduction, the

researchers said.

Each doctor had at least

2000 colonoscopies under

their belt before the study.

“ We believe that continuous

exposure to decision support

systems, like AI, may lead to the

natural human tendency to overrely

on their recommendations,

leading to clinicians becoming

less motivated, less focused and

less responsible when making

cognitive decisions without AI

assistance,” the researchers said.

The study authors called

for clinical trials to investigate

the phenomenon. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol 2025; 12 Aug.