What Is Medical Doctor?

Doctor of Medicine (M.D. or MD, from the Latin Medicinae Doctor meaning "Teacher of Medicine,") is an academic degree for medical doctors.

How the term MD is applied varies between countries - it is a first professional degree (medical diploma) in some countries, for example in the USA and Canada, while in some countries it is a relatively rare higher doctoral academic research degree resembling a PhD, for example in the United Kingdom and Australia.^[1]. In the UK and countries following the British model, the equivalent of the American undergraduate degree of MD is the MBChB or MBBS (meaning "Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery" - see later).

According to Sir John Bagot Glubb, the first medical schools to issue diplomas were the Bimaristan hospital-universities of the medieval Islamic world. The first of these institutions was opened in Baghdad during the time of Harun al-Rashid. They then appeared in Egypt from 872 and then in Islamic Spain, Persia and the Maghreb thereafter. Physicians and surgeons at these hospital-universities gave lectures on Islamic medicine to medical students and then a medical diploma was issued to students who were qualified to be practicing physicians.^[2]

According to Douglas Guthrie,^[3], who bases his account on L Thorndike,^[4] medical men were first called "Doctor" at the Medical School of Salerno. He states that that the Emperor Frederick II decreed in 1221 that no one should practice medicine until he had been publicly examined and approved by the masters of Salerno. The course lasted 5 years, and to start one had to be 21 years old and show proof of legitimacy and of three years study of logic. The course was followed by a year of supervised practice. After the laureation ceremony the practitioners could call themselves "magister" or "doctor."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Medicine