Melbourne Medicine Interview

Why Melbourne MD specifically — what draws you to the Parkville precinct?

Reference the integrated biomedical research footprint (Doherty, Peter Mac, Florey, WEHI), the Discovery project, and the breadth of clinical schools. Generic prestige answers score poorly.

A 19-year-old presents with a treatable cancer but refuses chemotherapy on personal grounds. They have capacity. Walk us through your response.

Name the competing principles (autonomy, beneficence, family dynamics). Weigh them. Don't rush to a conclusion. Melbourne scores the structured reasoning.

Voluntary assisted dying has been legal in Victoria since 2019. What has the rollout taught the rest of Australia?

Engage with the implementation review findings — practitioner uptake, eligibility friction, conscientious objection, the role of the VAD Care Navigator. Show informed engagement.

The Discovery research project is mandatory in the Melbourne MD. What question would you want to investigate, and why?

Authentic and defensible. Tie to a clinical observation, prior research, or lived experience. Avoid buzzwords.

Role-play: a fellow MD student tells you they've been struggling with the workload and considering leaving the program. Begin the conversation.

Listen first. Don't fix. Validate. Open conversation about formal supports (MIH, faculty wellbeing services). Avoid armchair counselling.

Explain the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to a recently arrived migrant patient who has no health-system literacy.

Use a concrete analogy (government-subsidised pharmacy list). Plain language. Check understanding.

Closing the Gap cardiovascular targets continue to lag. What's the role of a Melbourne MD graduate in shifting them?

Structural reasoning:

• workforce
• ACCHO partnerships (VACCHO)
• racism in clinical encounters
• social determinants

Don't centre yourself.

Describe a time you delivered difficult news to someone in your personal or professional life.

STAR with reflection. Melbourne scores depth of reflection.

A 45-year-old patient asks you for a chronic opioid prescription. Their previous GP refused. SafeScript shows a pattern of concern. What do you do?

What they are listening for:

• Real-time prescription monitoring (SafeScript Victoria)
• addiction medicine pathways
• therapeutic relationship
• alternatives

Don't default to refusal without context.

Why graduate medicine at Melbourne rather than the 6-year Monash undergraduate stream?

Engage with maturity, prior degree benefit, the Parkville research culture, and the Discovery project specifically.

Tell us about a time you worked in a team where you disagreed with a decision.

Process focus, not outcome focus. Melbourne values constructive dissent.

Should Australia expand subsidised access to weight-loss drugs like semaglutide on the PBS?

What they are listening for:

• PBS economics
• obesity as chronic disease
• equity of access
• alternative public-health investments

Balanced reasoning.

What does it mean to be a "scientist-clinician" in 2026?

Engage with translational research, evidence-based practice, the limits of biomedicine. Avoid jargon.

Role-play: explain to a parent why their child's tonsillitis doesn't need antibiotics this time.

Validate worry. Plain language. Antibiotic stewardship without lecturing. Concrete safety-netting.

A patient refuses a life-saving blood transfusion on religious grounds. They are competent and adult. What do you do?

What they are listening for:

• Capacity
• autonomy
• NSW/VIC consent framework
• palliative escalation

Document. Respect the decision.

Tell us about a non-academic interest that you'd want to continue developing during medical school.

Authentic. Melbourne wants candidates with sustainable lives, not single-track strivers.

Should medical schools cap full-fee international student intake given workforce pressures?

What they are listening for:

• CSP funding model
• international revenue
• workforce projections

Balanced reasoning.