Legal & Regulatory

Legal, regulatory & educational information

Clear, honest statements about who we are, what our certificates and awards do and do not confer, who confers them, and the boundaries that protect learners, patients, surgeries and partners.

Last reviewed 11 October 2026 · Next review 11 April 2027

Who we are

The operating entity

MD Acumen is the trading name of MD Acumen Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16538952), based in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. MD Acumen is one school of medical education: its undergraduate, early-career and postgraduate teaching, from the UK primary-care observership and PLAB 2 OSCE preparation to MRCGP preparation and Certificates of Advanced Studies, is delivered by MD Acumen Ltd. All references to "we", "us" and "MD Acumen" mean MD Acumen Ltd.

Company. MD Acumen Ltd · Registered in England and Wales · Company No. 16538952 · Hertfordshire, United Kingdom · ICO registration ZC105897 · enquiry@mdacumen.com

What our credentials are — and are not

Teaching authority, not awarding authority

MD Acumen Ltd is a teaching authority. It designs, teaches and quality-assures education. It is not a degree-awarding body, and it does not itself award academic credit. Academic credit is awarded only by a partner university, and only where a programme page says so.

Certificates of Advanced Studies (CAS)

MD Acumen postgraduate programmes lead to a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS), awarded by New Vision University and pitched at EQF level 7, equivalent in level to the FHEQ level 7 descriptors — 20 UK credits / 10 ECTS. Programmes are delivered by MD Acumen Ltd.

A CAS is an academic award. It is not a UK degree (BSc/MSc/MD), a Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert) or Postgraduate Diploma of a UK university, GMC registration, entry to the GMC Specialist Register, a licence to practise, or a guarantee of any individual role or job title. Roles such as "GP with Extended Role" are conferred locally (for example by an ICB) against the relevant national framework; an academic award does not by itself confer them.

Observership certificates and academic credit

The observership Certificate of Completion and the optional Certificate of Quality Improvement Activity record participation and completed activity. They are portfolio artefacts; they are not academic degrees, GMC registration, or evidence of clinical competence to practise.

MD Acumen Ltd is a teaching authority. Any academic credit (ECTS) for the observership is decided and awarded by the student's home medical school, which is the sole examining and awarding authority.

Undergraduate ECTS modules

Where MD Acumen teaches a module inside a partner university's medical degree, ECTS credit is awarded by that host institution under its learning agreement. MD Acumen does not award academic credit.

Certificates: CPD, completion, ECTS and the Certificate of Advanced Studies

CPD and attendance certificates are granted to all attendees of masterclass courses. Certificates of Completed Educational Activity are provided for all other educational activities on MD Acumen. The host university provides its own ECTS certificate. MD Acumen, under the regulatory endorsement and approval of New Vision University, provides the academic teaching content for the Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) courses, and New Vision University awards the Certificate of Advanced Studies under its own regulatory authority. A Certificate of Completed Educational Activity is not an academic award and carries no academic credit unless a programme page expressly states otherwise.

Curriculum alignment, not endorsement

Where we state a programme is "curriculum-aligned with" a body (for example NICE, ESC, KDIGO, ADA, BMS or BASH), we mean explicit mapping of content to that body's published guidance. This is not a claim of endorsement, accreditation or affiliation. We do not claim endorsement, accreditation or recognition by any body unless it has been confirmed to us in writing.

International recognition

ECTS credit is designed to be internationally portable through the diploma-supplement framework. Recognition of any specific overseas qualification is determined by the relevant institution or competent authority in each country. MD Acumen does not claim regulatory recognition in any jurisdiction that has not been confirmed in writing.

Regulators and colleges

Regulatory non-affiliation

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No GMC affiliation. MD Acumen is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the General Medical Council. Where our teaching references the UKMLA, PLAB, AKT or CPSA, it does so descriptively; the GMC's own published materials are the authoritative source.
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Independent of the RCGP. MD Acumen Ltd is an independent educational organisation. Its own programmes and awards are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or delivered on behalf of the Royal College of General Practitioners. Where Prof Rajesh Varma teaches courses for the College, the RCGP owns those programmes, their booking and their delegate administration.
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Guideline bodies. References to NICE and other guideline-issuing bodies describe their published guidance. They do not imply that any such body has reviewed or approved our teaching.
Examination preparation

What our exam courses are, and are not

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Examination preparation. Our PLAB 2 OSCE / CPSA course and practice cases are free, independent, formative educational resources. They are not affiliated with or endorsed by the General Medical Council, are not a formal examination training programme, and do not guarantee any examination outcome. The UK primary-care observership is not a PLAB 1 or PLAB 2 training course.
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MRCGP preparation. Our MRCGP SCA course and practice stations are independent, formative teaching. They are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Royal College of General Practitioners, contain no RCGP examination content, and do not guarantee any examination outcome.
PLAB 2 OSCE course

Content, marking and feedback statements

Short-form notices on the relevant course pages summarise the points below; this is the complete regulatory statement governing our PLAB 2 OSCE course, practice cases and live classes.

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No GMC exam content. This course does not, and will never, provide GMC PLAB 2 examination content, and we will never ask a candidate to share, describe or reconstruct content from an examination they have sat. Disclosing, requesting or trading real exam material is treated by the GMC as misconduct under its PLAB Rules and Regulations, and can place a candidate's ability to sit the examination — and ultimately their registration — at risk. If any organisation asks you to share content from an exam you have attended, or claims to hold real exam stations, treat this as a serious warning sign. All stations, mark schemes and materials here are original teaching material built from the GMC's own published guidance — the PLAB 2 guide, the MLA content map, the Foundation Programme curriculum and the GMC's published exam-structure information — and none of it is, or claims to be, actual GMC examination content.
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Mark scheme: basis and limitations. The PLAB 2 OSCE is marked by GMC examiners across three published domains, with an additional overall standard-setting judgement per station (Unsatisfactory, Borderline, Satisfactory, Good), benchmarked to the standard expected of a newly qualified FY2 doctor — set out in the GMC's published PLAB 2 guidance, together with the borderline-regression method used to derive each station's pass mark. For teaching purposes we map these four categories onto an illustrative 1–4 scoring framework per domain. This numbering and its descriptors are an educational construct devised by MD Acumen to structure self-assessment against the GMC's own named categories — they are not a reproduction of the GMC's internal marking rubric, anchor statements or numeric scale, which the GMC does not publish and which this course has no access to. Treat the framework as a formative self-assessment aid only, never as a verified indicator of actual GMC scoring; MD Acumen Ltd accepts no liability for reliance placed on it in place of official GMC guidance.
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Use of the GMC's feedback statements. Where a station is judged Unsatisfactory or Borderline, GMC guidance states the examiner will indicate which of ten published feedback statements apply. We use these ten published statements as structured educational cues during practice — signposts for focused self-improvement, not the GMC's own stated purpose in publishing them, which we do not claim. We have simply adopted them as a consistent, useful framework for candidate feedback during preparation.

Reference for all three points: GMC — Understanding your results

The observership boundary

Observation, learning and reflection only

Observership students operate strictly within the GMC framework for clinical observation. They may observe consultations, procedures and diagnostic activity and attend clinical and audit meetings; they may not take histories or examine patients independently, perform clinical procedures, prescribe or contribute formally to clinical decisions, or document in the clinical record under their own credentials. The boundary is set by the observership-grade indemnity each student must hold, and is maintained by the host-surgery lead supervisor. The full boundary is set out on the student observership page; safeguarding on placement is covered in our Safeguarding policy.

Immigration

Visas are the student's responsibility

Information on this site about UK visas is general guidance, not immigration advice. Most observership students travel on a UK Standard Visitor visa appropriate to an educational observership; a Student visa may apply where the partner university operates sponsorship. Students are responsible for securing the correct immigration permission and must verify their position against the official GOV.UK guidance and their home university's international office before travelling.

Clinical content

Clinical content and currency

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Guidance-led. Content is authored independently and anchored to recognised UK guideline-issuing bodies. Where any clinical example references medicines, UK-licensed agents within a class are presented even-handedly per their NICE technology appraisals.
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Verified and dated. Each page carries a visible last-reviewed date and is kept aligned with the latest relevant guidance under the Director's clinical sign-off. Clinical content is current to cornerstone guidance at the stated review date.
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Not a substitute for judgement or current guidance. Our education is for current and future healthcare professionals. It is not a substitute for individual clinical judgement, current national and local guidance, local formularies, specialist advice, or the current licensed indications of any medicine. Clinicians remain responsible for applying up-to-date guidance and their own judgement to each patient.
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Not medical advice. Nothing on this site is medical advice for patients or the public, and nothing here is individual legal or financial advice. If you are unwell, contact your GP, NHS 111, or 999 in an emergency.
Independence

Sponsorship and conflicts of interest

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Sole editorial control. MD Acumen retains sole editorial control of curriculum, faculty and assessment. Content remains under MD Acumen or awarding-body control.
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Unrestricted sponsorship only, and declared. Any educational sponsorship is an unrestricted grant that confers no influence over curriculum, faculty, assessment, learner data or any clinical recommendation, and is declared in our Sponsor Disclosure Register. Industry sponsorship, where present, is handled in an ABPI Code-compliant manner. As at the date of the current register, no educational sponsorship has been received.
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Declared interests. Our faculty's professional roles, including NHS clinical practice, university appointments and teaching for professional bodies, are stated openly on the pages where they teach. Any interest relevant to a specific session is declared at the start of that session.

Questions about any of this?

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