Fellowship Training

Tara McGrath
Talwyn Skinner, left, walks Tara McGrath, a former department fellow, through a garden-themed Pain 101 student art project to explain how her new approach to managing pain has taken her from surviving to thriving. Learn more.

Subcategories of Fellows

At the University of Alberta, we subcategorize fellows as follows:

  • Clinical Research Fellow - primary duties relate to defined clinical research under direction of a designated supervisor.
  • Clinical Fellow - primary duties relate to supervised clinical care.

A fellow is a post-MD trainee who is registered with the Postgraduate Medical Education Office and is pursuing supervised clinical and/or clinical research training which is NOT accredible towards fulfilling certification eligibility requirements of existing residency programs recognized by the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC), or the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC).


Examples of Post-MD trainees who should be classified as Fellows are:

  • Any trainee who has completed Canadian specialty training requirements and is pursuing clinical training or research within their own specialty field beyond the requirements for specialty or subspecialty certification.
  • Any trainee who may be ineligible for Canadian certification because previous training is not accredible by the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC), or the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC).
  • Any trainee who is registered for the purpose of obtaining specific experience in a specialty/subspecialty which is not currently recognized by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC), or for which there is no accredited program at the University of Alberta.