Applications are now open for the 2020 AMA Indigenous Medical Scholarship, a program that has supported Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to study medicine since 1994.

The successful applicant will receive $10,000 each year for the duration of their course.

AMA President, Dr Tony Bartone, said that previous recipients have gone on to become prominent leaders in health and medicine, including Associate Professor Kelvin Kong, Australia’s first Aboriginal surgeon.

Applications for the AMA Indigenous Medical Scholarship close on 31 January, with the successful applicant receiving $10,000 each year for the duration of their course.

Fewer than 300 doctors working in Australia identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander – representing 0.3 per cent of the workforce – and only 286 Indigenous medical students were enrolled across the nation in 2017.