Sir

The critical and trenchant letter by the pharmacologists Hartmut Glossmann and Bernhard Peskar on the status of Austrian medical training is welcome (Nature 396, 614; 1998). But, as medical doctors, members of the teaching staff and students of the Medical School in Graz, we take issue with the statement that “Many teaching staff lack an MD qualification and do not know the basic requirements of clinical work”. This statement is bewildering because, in all clinical branches, members of the teaching staff must have an MD qualification, and do know the basic requirements of clinical work.

Presumably, Glossmann and Peskar meant that in many preclinical branches — biochemistry, pharmacology and physiology to name but a few — teachers of medical students do not always have an MD but instead a PhD qualification. So, the question arises whether effective and medically oriented teaching of medical students in these preclinical disciplines requires an MD qualification. In our estimation, it is not a prerequisite at all.