Program Overview

Introduction to the Program

The specialized field of forensic medicine comprises applied medicine, toxicology, serology, and investigating biological evidence in the interests of the law, public safety, and the healthcare system. This includes the examination, assessment, reconstruction, and clarification of natural and violent deaths, physical injuries, damage to the health of and after-effects of injuries to living people, poisoning, the effects of alcohol and addictive drugs, bodies and body parts for the purposes of establishing identity, sexual crimes, child abuse, disputed family relationships, medical malpractice, traces of DNA and other evidence; as well as addressing legal questions from a medical standpoint, notably as an expert witness before courts and administrative authorities.

Scope of Training

Graduation as a Medical Doctor (M.D.) requires a duration of six years. The course to become a Forensic Medical Specialist is broken down into:

• Basic training (acquisition of basic skills for all physicians after graduation) for 9 months, which takes place in hospitals: three months of surgical specialties plus six months of conservative subjects serve as the basis for postgraduate education (emergency competencies, primary care measures, recognition of the most common diseases)
• Thereafter, specific training to become a Forensic Medical Specialist for another 63 months, comprising two parts:
  • Special subject-specific basic training lasting 36 months: Basic skills throughout the specialized field of Forensic Medicine
  • Special subject-specific specialization in modules lasting 27 months: In-depth training in sub-areas of the specialized field of Forensic Medicine

Medical Association

The degree is completed by sitting the specialist examination. The training content for the special subject of forensic medicine and exam contents are crucial components of the program.

Content and Scope of Knowledge and Skills Required

The main subject area requires knowledge and skills in:

• Classical forensic medicine (death, physical changes, external examination, injuries, types of injuries and how they occur)
• Normal and pathological anatomy (natural death); training in post-mortem examinations and special post-mortem techniques (embryo, newborns, toddlers, road traffic accidents, mors in tabula)
• Identification (disaster medicine)
• Traffic-related medicine (examination of corpses and living people, special post-mortem techniques, biomechanics, fitness to drive, suitability to drive)
• Termination of pregnancy, criminal abortions
• Ancestry issues, fertility, paternity serology, hereditary biology, human genetics, examinations associated with sexual crimes, child abuse, examining sex offenders
• Toxicology, in particular identification of poisoning cases with typical changes and morphology of poisoning
• Alcohol-related medicine (detection, effects, assessment)
• Addictive drugs (detection, effects, assessment)
• Biological trace analysis (blood, semen, sweat, hair, urine, stool); chemical, physical, microscopic and DNA methods of detection
• Occupational and environmental diseases
• Documentation (findings and expert opinions, description and storage of evidence, photographs, special microscopy, collection and preservation of bodies and body parts)
• Legislation applicable to the practice of medicine, in particular criminal and civil law, as well as health-related legislation
• Assessments, in particular expert opinions; evaluating invalidity, ability to work and stand trial, suitability for detention, injuries and the effects of injuries for living people; how injuries occur; assessing medical malpractice, in particular mors in tabula, anaesthetic and transfusion accidents

Certification as a Sworn-in and Certified Expert Witness

An expert witness is a person who, on the basis of evidence and their expertise, is in a position to establish facts or to draw and substantiate legally relevant conclusions. The work of an expert witness is regulated by the Austrian Act on Expert Witnesses and Interpreters, and registration as an expert witness in a particular field is carried out by the Federal Ministry of Justice.

Studying in Neighbouring German-Speaking Countries, in Great Britain, or in the United States of America

Germany

• Six-year degree in medicine finishing with a licence to practise medicine
• Five-year training as a specialist in forensic medicine, divided into:
  • At least six months of study at an institute for pathology
  • At least six months of study at a psychiatric institution
  • At least 48 months of study at an institute for forensic medicine
• Recognition as a specialist for forensic medicine by passing a specialist exam after the course of study has been completed

Switzerland

• Three-year bachelor degree in medicine – completing with a Bachelor of Medicine (BMed)
• Three-year master degree in medicine – completing with a Master of Medicine (MMed)
• Five-year training as a specialist in forensic medicine, divided into:
  • Non-specialised professional training: one year in a clinical field
  • Specialist professional training: four years in forensic medicine
• Training is completed by sitting the specialist examination

Great Britain

• Six-year degree in medicine (four years of studies + two years as a foundation doctor)
• About five years training to become a specialist in clinical pathology with a focus on forensic pathology
• Two paths of training:
  • Training to become a specialist in histopathology
  • Five years of study and 18–24 months' training in forensic pathology

USA

• Four years of undergraduate studies (bachelor)
• Four years of medical school (M.D. or D.O.)
• Two routes, either four years training in Anatomic Pathology ("Pathologie") and Clinical Pathology ("Labormedizin") or three years training in Anatomic Pathology
• One year fellowship in Forensic Pathology