The Australian Defence Force Medical Specialist Program: Past, Present and Future.

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) aspires to provide high-quality medical care to personnel deployed on operations. Medical procedural specialists are key enablers of this capability. In the late 20th Century, the ADF relied upon Reserve clinicians to staff deployed health facilities. Though generally successful, this approach is limited in the extent to which it can guarantee the availability of specialists at short notice or for prolonged durations. Consequently, from the early 2000s, the ADF has worked to create a more robust, high-readiness specialist staffing model. As a result, several schemes were established, culminating in the extant Medical Specialist Program (MSP). This paper examines the evolution of the MSP and the contemporary employment of its members. Consideration is also given to challenges encountered during the MSPs early years and how these challenges may be overcome. Particular issues include the imbalance of MSP specialties, refinement of command frameworks and formalising career pathways for procedural specialists. If these challenges are met, the MSP will continue to grow as a repository of corporate knowledge and generate value beyond the contribution of its individual members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]