Msod Longitudinal Tracking Project

Find out about accessing data from the world’s first nationally coordinated project for tracking medical students through medical school and into training!

The Medical Schools Outcomes Database and Longitudinal Tracking (MSOD) Project is the world’s first nationally coordinated project for tracking medical students through medical school and into prevocational and vocational training. Through Medical Deans, all 18 Australian medical schools are involved in the project both as stakeholders and participants. A pilot study was conducted in 2005 and MSOD began collecting data nationally in 2006.

The MSOD Project is an ambitious initiative, relying on involvement from stakeholders throughout the medical education continuum in order to maximise returns, relevance and usage. The Project is a collaboration of a number of key stakeholder organisations representing students, postgraduate education and training, rural and Indigenous Health, and workforce planning.

MSOD is the Australian Government’s main data collection tool for medical student information and is hosted by Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand Inc.

MSOD Project objectives include:

Provision of an effective, reliable evaluation mechanism for assessing long-term outcomes of educational programs, in particular those aimed at increasing the recruitment and retention of a rural medical workforce

Provision of a secure, reliable source of accurate, up-to-date data for the purposes of long-term medical workforce planning

Determining the effectiveness of targeted programs and interventions in influencing the career decisions of medical students

Promotion of strategic reform of medical education policy and programs at the university, state and Commonwealth levels in order to match program and policy frameworks with national health priorities

Provision of an information resource for research projects for Australian medical educators that will contribute to the national and international literature on medical education


The project was possible due to funding made available by Health Workforce Australia (2011 onwards) and The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (2004-2011).