[5] Instead, it is a regulatory authority that helps ensure that the training and evaluation of medical and surgical specialists and two special programs maintain certain standards of quality.

[6] All specialists in Canada, with the exception of family physicians, must be certified by the Royal College before they obtain a provincial or territorial licence to practice.

[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] The only exception is in the province of Quebec, where the Royal College shares the responsibility for certifying physicians with the Collège des médecins du Québec.

By 2014, the Royal College had expanded its activities to recognize 80 disciplines, granting Fellowships in 30 specialties, 35 subspecialties, two special programs and 13 Areas of Focused Competence (AFC-diplomas).

[citation needed] From the 1940s to the 1970s, the Royal College conducted examinations at two levels in most specialties: Fellowship, the higher qualification, or Certification, a lesser designation.

[22] Since the mid-1980s, the Royal College has broadened its activities to study areas of special interest in Canadian healthcare, including injury prevention[23][24][25] and patient safety.

[47] The Royal College co-sponsored the 10th Annual International Conference on Medical Regulation, which took place at the Ottawa Convention Centre in Ontario, Canada, in October 2012.

[49][16][50][51] Introduced in 2000, MOC is a core service delivered by the Royal College and is also open to health care professionals who are not Fellows and not physicians.

[57][58] Revised in 2005, the CanMEDS competencies have now been integrated into the Royal College's accreditation standards, objectives of training, final in-training evaluations, exam blueprints, and the Maintenance of Certification program.

[74] The Royal College engages regularly in work to affect health policy, especially in the areas of physician employment and resident duty hours.

[citation needed] Physician employment: In 2013, the Royal College released the results of a Canada-wide study that showed an increasing number of specialists cannot find jobs relevant to their skills and training.

[79][80][81] The steering committee's research process and subsequent report were widely received as robust and a major step forward in the controversial debate about duty hours.

Awards recognize the importance and potential impact of specialist physicians' work and categories include original research, personal achievements and visiting professorships.

[85] The award is named in honour of Dr. Lucille Teasdale and Dr. Piero Corti, a physician couple who devoted their professional careers to healing, teaching, and improving the condition of the population residing in the poverty stricken Gulu region of Uganda.