Why do we need to bring together the players in the complex exercise known as medical education? Since the 1988 Doherty Report into medical education and the medical workforce, there has been rapid change in Australia in the education of medical practitioners, and in their vital teamwork links with all other health professionals. Before this time, it seemed that there was complacency and conservatism relating to medical education, as well as to our assumptions about the number, distribution and type of medical practitioners that our community needed. Despite, or probably because of, the major changes that have occurred over the past 10 to 15 years, we have recently seen a public demonstration that adheres to the views that existed before these changes were made.