Prometric Exam for Public Health and Community Medicine Doctors: Specialist Licence for DHA, MOHAP, DOH, SCFHS & QCHP — Three Exam Codes, the 17-Area Blueprint, 65% Pass Mark, MD Community Medicine vs MPH and Salaries (2026)
Public health has three exam codes that share one blueprint: Public Health Medicine, Community Medicine, and Public Health & General Preventive Medicine. Each asks 150 questions in three hours and needs 65%. This guide covers the seventeen blueprint areas, the epidemiology and biostatistics calculations that repeat, why an MPH alone does not give a specialist title, and where the jobs are.
Mass gatherings at Hajj, screening of a large migrant workforce, school health programmes, occupational health in oil, gas and construction, and national campaigns against diabetes and obesity: Gulf governments employ public health physicians in numbers that surprise clinicians. The licence uses a paper that looks nothing like a clinical exam.
Three codes, one blueprint
| Exam (code) | Questions | Time | Pass mark | Correct answers needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Specialist Public Health Medicine (COM5551) | 150 | 3 h | 65% | 98 |
| Specialist Community Medicine (SCO6012) | 150 | 3 h | 65% | 98 |
| Specialist Public Health & General Preventive Medicine (SPH6022) | 150 | 3 h | 65% | 98 |
The code you are given follows the title on your eligibility letter, which follows the wording of your degree. The content is the same. References: Last's Dictionary of Epidemiology, the Oxford Handbook of Public Health Practice and Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine — Park is the book most South Asian candidates already own, and it covers most of the paper.
MD community medicine or MPH?
- MD or DNB community medicine, FCPS community medicine, Arab Board, MFPH or FFPH, American preventive medicine boards → Specialist.
- MBBS plus MPH → the MPH is an academic master's degree, not a clinical specialist qualification. Most holders are licensed as General Practitioners, and many public health posts — programme officer, epidemiologist, quality and infection control roles — do not require a clinical licence at all.
- Non-medical MPH graduates → no physician title; employed in non-licensed or allied public health roles.
Check the recognition guide and run the eligibility check before paying for verification.
The seventeen blueprint areas
- Epidemiology — study designs, measures of frequency and association, bias and confounding, causation criteria, outbreak investigation steps, surveillance
- Preventive medicine — levels of prevention, screening criteria, immunisation programmes and cold chain
- Biostatistics and research methods — choosing a test, p values and confidence intervals, sample size, sampling methods
- Health care management — planning cycle, health economics, quality improvement, indicators
- Health informatics
- Health education and communication — behaviour change models
- Maternal and child health care — mortality indicators, antenatal programmes, breastfeeding, growth monitoring
- Primary health care principles and elements
- Community medicine ethics and legal aspects
- School health
- Nutrition — deficiency disorders, assessment, obesity programmes
- Elderly health care
- Mental health
- Special needs health care
- Occupational health — heat stress, pneumoconioses, noise, ergonomics, pre-employment and periodic examination
- Environmental health — water quality, waste, air pollution, vector control
- International health — International Health Regulations, travel and Hajj health, emerging infections including MERS-CoV
What repeats
- Two-by-two table arithmetic — sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, relative risk, odds ratio, attributable risk. Expect to calculate, not just define.
- Name the study design from a description, and name the bias.
- Incidence vs prevalence and what changes each.
- Which statistical test for which data.
- Outbreak investigation — the order of steps, and the epidemic curve shapes.
- Mortality indicators — definitions and denominators.
- Vaccine storage and schedule.
- Screening programme criteria and lead-time and length bias.
Where the jobs are
Ministries of health and public health authorities, municipal preventive medicine departments, visa medical screening centres, occupational health providers serving industry, airport and port health, hospital infection-control and quality departments, and insurers. Arabic is a real advantage in government posts. Private-sector demand is smaller than for clinical specialties, so secure the job offer in parallel with the licence.
Process
- Portal registration and title selection.
- DataFlow verification of the primary degree, the postgraduate qualification, registration and experience (guide, fees).
- Eligibility, booking (lead times), exam — Prometric for most authorities, Pearson VUE for DOH.
- Offer and activation.
Salaries
Specialist public health physicians in the UAE typically earn AED 25,000–40,000 a month, with occupational health physicians in industry often higher. Saudi packages run SAR 22,000–38,000 with housing. These are below procedural specialties but come with regular hours and no on-call. Compare in the salary calculator and register in the talent pool.
Six-week plan
- Week 1: epidemiology.
- Week 2: biostatistics and research methods — do the calculations by hand.
- Week 3: communicable disease control, immunisation, international health.
- Week 4: maternal and child health, nutrition, school and elderly health.
- Week 5: occupational and environmental health, management, informatics, ethics.
- Week 6: two timed mocks from the question bank for your code.
Frequently asked questions
What is the pass mark for the public health Prometric exam?
65%. Each of the three papers has 150 single-best-answer questions in three hours, so 98 correct answers are needed.
Is an MPH enough for a public health specialist licence?
No. An MPH is an academic degree. The Specialist title needs a clinical postgraduate qualification such as MD community medicine, FCPS or an equivalent board.
What is the difference between COM5551, SCO6012 and SPH6022?
Only the title. All three share the same blueprint, question count, duration and pass mark; the code follows the title on your eligibility letter.
Do I need a calculator in the exam?
An on-screen calculator is normally provided at the test centre. Practise the epidemiology calculations until the formulas are automatic.
Practice banks for this exam
Chapter-wise MCQs with written reasoning on every question, and timed mocks at the real pass mark.