Special Interest Groups of Medical Activity (SIGMA)

Special Interest Groups of Medical Activity (SIGMAs) recognize disciplines that are emerging fields of interest and meet a legitimate societal need, but do not yet have an established practice base or are without a widespread impact to date.

Although SIGMAs are not formally recognized disciplines of the Royal College, they do represent domains of medicine that Royal College Fellows are developing. SIGMAs are intended to help advance medicine as new areas of science and societal need arise, and act as a gateway to more formalized recognition by the Royal College — perhaps eventually to an Area of Focused Competence (AFC) diploma or subspecialty.

SIGMAs may be formed independently by individuals interested in investigating future options for discipline recognition, but are not formally supported by the Royal College at this time.