Continuing Professional Development
For AOA members: please click here to access CPD Online.
About CPD
AOA offers a CPD Program to current AOA members.
The AOA CPD Program has been developed to assist you in maintaining, enhancing, or developing skills and knowledge across the entirety of your career. CPD helps you to maintain the highest possible standard of practice and therefore ensure the highest standard of care for your patients. Our program is designed to promote lifelong learning and reflection in all aspects of surgical practice.
The CPD Program is a member service and there is no cost to members for participation.
AOA CPD program overview
More information on the CPD Program can be found in the Guide to CPD for Orthopaedic Surgeons (Handbook).
The CPD Program is governed by the CPD Participation and Compliance Policy.
Participation in AOA CPD
All practitioners with specialist registration must participate in a CPD program that is accredited by the AMC through a CPD Home, and meet the CPD standard set by their college. For orthopaedic surgery in Australia the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) is the CPD Home and this standard may be met by completion of either the AOA or RACS CPD Program.
The minimum CPD requirements outlined above are the same for all practice types. The hour requirements can be met in a variety of ways, across a range of CPD activities that suit your practice.
To find out more about your practice type, click on the '+' icons below.
Fully retired members who no longer hold medical registration are not required to participate in CPD. Members who have retired from operative practice and continue to work in any other capacity must fulfil the requirements.
Members in full time or part-time practice are required to participate in CPD. There is no reduction in CPD requirements for part-time surgeons as the standard of practice is the same.
Members who are currently working overseas are required to participate in CPD. If you are working overseas, you can choose to either participate in the AOA program or the equivalent CPD program of the country in which you are based. Documentary evidence of compliance in the overseas CPD program is required annually.
New fellows are automatically enrolled in the CPD program. New members must participate in CPD in their first year (greater than six months of the calendar year) of active practice. This includes new members who are completing a fellowship as a consultant. Transition to Practice (TTP) trainees are required to meet CPD requirements in preparation for consultant practice.
Members holding medical registration other than specialist medical registration should contact the Medical Board of Australia (MBA) to discuss their CPD requirements. For more information, please visit the MBA website at
medicalboard.gov.au. Members are asked to notify the AOA CPD team if their circumstances change.
AOA offers a formal process under which third-party organisations can apply to have educational activities accredited by the Association. Accreditation is a process by which AOA assesses the educational quality and relevance of courses, meetings, workshops and other educational activities against a set of defined criteria. Accreditation of activities is designed to:
- recognise and promote the creation and delivery of high-quality educational activities within the orthopaedic scope of practice
- simplify the recording of third-party activities for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) hours under the AOA CPD Program
- promote ongoing learning, self-development, and reflective practice on orthopaedic surgery
- assist AOA members in finding and selecting appropriate activities for ongoing learning and professional development.
Accreditation of activities is encouraged, but not mandatory. Accreditation is not available to industry-run activities.
For more information about accreditation of educational activities, please download the
Accreditation of Educational Activities policy.
Applications for accreditation should be submitted using the application form. Applications must be returned via email to cpd@aoa.org.au accompanied by all relevant supporting documentation. A non-refundable application fee of $160 is payable upon submission of the application form.
For assistance with any aspect of accreditation of activities, please contact the AOA CPD team on 02 8071 8000 or email cpd@aoa.org.au
Need help with CPD or 2FA?
For more information on two-factor authentication (2FA) and connecting an authenticator to your CPD, view the guides below.
For assistance with any aspect of AOA’s CPD program or accreditation of activities, please contact the AOA CPD team on 02 8071 8000 or email cpd@aoa.org.au