Welcome to the Postgraduate Medical Education
Medical graduates register with the Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) Office as residency trainees or as fellowship trainees.
Residency training is training which leads to specialty (or subspecialty) certification by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) or to certification as a family physician by the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC).
Fellowship training, on the other hand, does not lead to certification by the RCPSC or CFPC. Clinical fellowship training is ordinarily a one-year to three-year “topping off” experience for recognized specialists or family physicians.
A list of our training programs and links to program websites can be found below.
Types of Training at PGME
Fellowship Training
Fellowship training does not lead to certification by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) or by the College of Family Physicians of Canada. Fellows are classified as either clinical fellows or research fellows. If you are interested in applying for a fellowship position at the University of Toronto, please visit the Fellowship training page.
Residency Training
Residency training is training which leads to specialty (or subspecialty) certification by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) or to certification as a family physician by the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC). If you would like to apply for residency training at the University of Toronto, please visit the Residency training page.
Elective Training
As a postgraduate medical resident, you may register for an elective rotation at the University of Toronto in order to satisfy a specified part of the requirements of the ongoing residency training program in which you are enrolled at your home institution. Elective training is short-term training. If you would like to register for an elective rotation, please see the Elective training page.
Observerships
Observerships (also known as “shadowing”) have no University of Toronto status. Due to the high volume of requests that the PGME Office receives on this topic, however, our website offers some basic information about opportunities to observe patient care in clinical settings in Toronto.