Recently, the Ministry of Education, the NHFPC, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security jointly issued the Opinions on Medicine and Education Synergy to Deepen Clinical Medical Personnel Training Reform.

The opinions pointed out that speeding up the construction of a standardized and normalized medical talent cultivation system is a breakthrough in establishing a modern clinical medicine education system with Chinese characteristics, and a major innovation in realizing medicine and education synergy to deepen clinical medical personnel training reform. It marks that China's clinical medical education development has entered into a new historical stage, with great significance and far-reaching influence.

The opinions proposed that standardized and normalized medical talent cultivation system reform with Chinese characteristics featuring organic connections between college education, education after graduation, and continuing education should be accomplished by 2020. The recent task is speeding up the construction of a clinical medicine talent education system, which focuses on five years of undergraduate education in clinical medicine and three years of resident doctor normalized training or three years of postgraduate education in clinical medicine, with three years of junior college clinical medicine education and two years of assistant general practitioner training on the side.

The opinions clarified measures to deepen clinical medicine personnel training reform. First, relevant parties should deepen college education, improve the quality of personnel training, strike a balance between talent training and demand, deepen the five-year undergraduate training reform focusing on competence, strive to boost clinical medicine graduate education reform linked to standardized resident doctor training, explore the clinical medicine PhD education reform associated with standardized specialist doctor training, and promote general practitioner training reform for communities. Second, all personnel should establish and perfect a system for education after graduation, cultivate qualified clinicians, comprehensively carry out standardized resident doctor training, set up a standardized specialist doctor training system, and carry out assistant general practitioner training. Third, all personnel should improve the continuing education system, upgrade the overall quality of the health and family planning talent team, strengthen continuing education facilities and teaching staff construction, optimize continuing education implementation methods, and comprehensively carry out continuing medical education for all.

The opinions stressed that all regions and departments should strengthen organizational leadership, step up relevant policy support, improve education training system construction, revise talent training and facility construction standards, speed up accreditation of standardized training and continuing medicine education facilities, strengthen the construction of the clinical medicine degree authorization center, improve input mechanisms, make overall use of various resources, raise funds through various channels, strengthen clinical medicine scholarship, enhance incentive measures, increase the charm of health and family planning posts, and improve incentive and constraint mechanisms in communities and for talents in short supply.

The opinions asked relevant departments to pay great attention to clinical medicine talent training work; strengthen medicine and education synergy; improve work coordination mechanisms; focus on service, demand and quality; deepen reform; strengthen standards and construction; comprehensively improve the quality of clinical medical personnel training; and ensure talent supply for health and family planning development and public health.