Becoming a Specialist

General requirements

A doctor must complete specialist post-graduate training requirements (e.g., stipulated rotations, courses), attain the requisite entrustment levels for the Specialty’s Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs), and pass summative examinations to exit Specialty Training, before he/she can apply to the Specialists Accreditation Board (SAB) for accreditation and the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) for specialist registration to practise as a specialist doctor.

Specialist accreditation

All doctors who wish to practise as a specialist must first be accredited by the Specialists Accreditation Board (SAB). For more details, please refer to the section on Specialist accreditation.

Specialist registration

Upon obtaining a specialist accreditation certificate from the SAB, the doctor is required to register his name in the Register of Specialists with the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) before he is allowed to practise as a specialist in his specialty. For more information, please refer to SMC’s website. 

Assessments & Examinations

Doctors in specialist training have to pass exit examinations and attain requisite entrustment levels for the Specialty’s EPAs in order to exit from Specialty training. EPAs are units of professional practice (tasks) that can be entrusted to the resident with the right competencies to perform at the specified entrustment level, as assessed through workplace-based assessments. For more details, please refer to the section on the assessments listed in each specialty’s Specialty Training Requirements (STR).

Important dates / Application period

For details on the application timeline and process, please visit MOHH website.

Contact information

Should you have any queries on specialist training, please refer to the section Contact us for contact details to make your enquiry.