Registered Chinese medicine practitioners have a duty to ensure that their professional/academic qualifications are clearly displayed as awarded by their University/College. Practitioners should not interpret the degree(s) by holding out the degree(s) that it has not be awarded or conferred by the University/College.

For instance, a registered health practitioner with a “Bachelor of Medicine” (BMed) awarded overseas (e.g., China) should NOT display their title/qualification as “Doctor of Medicine” (MD) or “Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery” (MBBS) which are degrees awarded in Australia. Similarly, a practitioner with a postgraduate degree of “Doctor of Medicine” (DM or MD) awarded overseas (e.g., China) should NOT display their title as a “Doctor of Philosophy” (PhD), which is the research doctorate awarded in Australia.

Holding out that you have a degree you in fact do not have and by making a false claim about your professional/academic qualifications can be misleading the public and amount to a conduct issue on your professional practice.   

In Australia and New Zealand, the title 'Professor' or 'Associate Professor' can only be used by an individual while they are employed by the conferring higher education institution in that role. The right to use these title is extinguished on resignation or retirement from the institution. The exception is an Emeritus Professor who may use that title for life, but the term Emeritus is used in conjunction with the title Professor. As such, if you are a Chinese medicine practitioner holding a current 'Visiting Professor’ or ‘Honorary Professor' status at an overseas institution, you should NOT omit the word 'Visiting' or 'Honorary' from your title. Doing so may mislead the public and imply that you are currently employed in that role in an Australian University.

It is ultimately the practitioner's responsibility to determine whether or not they can fairly carry the title without misleading the public. When using the title 'Professor' in advertising the FULL name of the institution conferring the title should be included in order to fully inform the reader. If the Council or Board have reservations about an individual's legitimacy in carrying any title, Council has the authority to investigate this further.

As a Registered Chinese Medicine Practitioner, you must also ensure that any qualification-related information in advertising your title is not misleading to the public or can imply that you are more skilled or have greater experience than is the case. The misuse of titles in advertising can have possible legal consequences by contravening the National Law (See s133 of the National Law) and the Advertising Guidelines (See 7.3 and 7.4 of the Advertising Guidelines).

You should be careful about how you use ‘Dr’ in your advertising as the title is typically associated by the public to medical practitioners. If you choose to use the title ‘Dr’ in your advertising and you are not a registered medical practitioner, you should make it clear that you are a ‘Doctor of Chinese medicine’, regardless of whether you hold a Doctorate degree or PhD in Australia.  

Finally, you should not advertise yourself as a ‘specialist’, or your business as providing specialist Chinese medicine services. Doing so can mislead the public about the nature of your qualification and services provided.

To support you in understanding of the above, the Chinese medicine Board and AHPRA have developed resources to provide guidance about post nominals use on advertising qualifications and responsible advertising. These are available at:

1) https://www.ahpra.gov.au/Publications/Advertising-resources/Further-information.aspx

2) https://www.chinesemedicineboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines/FAQ/Registration.aspx

3) Guidelines for advertising of a regulated health services (Advertising Guidelines)

4) http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/hprnl460/s133.html

Prepared by Wenbo Peng, Christina Lam, Danforn Lim