UKMED is a partnership between data providers from across the education and health sectors. The data collated through UKMED are provided by:

• The Higher Education Statistics Agency
• UK Clinical Aptitude Test
• Graduate Australian Medical Schools Admissions Test
• General Medical Council
• UK Foundation Programme Office
• Postgraduate Deaneries and Local Education and Training Boards
• UK National Recruitment Offices

By linking these data, it is possible to create a large-scale, long-term body of information, in a database. Researchers make proposals to gain access to specific data from the database, with all proposals subject to a formal evaluation procedure based on a set of published criteria.

The scope of the research that can be undertaken through UKMED is potentially broad, ranging from analyses of selection tests in predicting future performance, to studying how socioeconomic background might affect an applicant’s chance of acceptance to medicine and progression through their career. Understanding individuals’ performance at different points during their study and medical career is helpful to understanding the factors that make doctors more or less likely to progress and succeed within the training pathways.