MCASS - The Medical Career And Speciality Study

The Medical Career And Speciality Study (MCASS) is a research project born out of the desire to help junior doctors make the right decision about which Specialist Training (ST) programme to join. Developed by doctors, for doctors, MCASS is the first UK researched, web-hosted and evidence-based career guidance tool specifically aimed at the Foundation 2 doctor.

Knowing what career to embark on can be tricky, especially if you have never experienced that speciality directly, and ending up in the wrong speciality can be frustrating, time consuming and costly. MCASS enables F2 doctors to compare their job aspirations against the reality of working as a doctor within each of the 10 major medical disciplines via the feedback of over 300 senior doctors.

Other questionnaires have reflected upon transferable psychometric parameters. MCASS gets down to the nitty gritty of a doctors day covering 6 major areas. These include: 1) basic sciences 2) procedures and technology 3) patient relationships and timeline 4) investigative and analytical parameters 5) breadth of medical knowledge and 6) life priorities.

MCASS is approved by the NHS National Research and Ethics Service. It involved the collaboration of four NHS Foundation Trusts and multiple GP practices.

How MCASS came about?

Phase 1 - Development of the questionnaire

Around 300 questionnaires returned from NHS senior specialists from four trusts. From this we created a database of characteristics in each speciality and a scoring system.

Phase 2 - Development of the scoring system and F2 doctor questionnaire

Foundation Year 2 doctors carried out an abbreviated questionnaire and scoring parameters were verified.

Phase 3 - Development of the online database and website prototype

Launch of MCASS web-hosted evidence-based guidance tool. A web-based platform was created, containing the anonymised database from specialist feedback. The interface enables trainees to carry out the questionnaire on line and gain an automated calculation of best fit specialities. All user input is maintained in a database to generate results for each individual and for further research purposes.

The MCASS platform aims to be transparent, clear, trusted, and shown to work efficiently.