Doctor Medicinae (Danish and Norwegian degree)
Doctor Medicinae, also spelled Doctor Medicinæ and abbreviated Dr. Med., is a doctoral degree (a research doctorate) in medicine awarded by universities in Denmark and formerly in Norway. It is often regarded as a higher doctorate compared to similarly named degrees elsewhere (such as the similarly named German degree), and roughly corresponds to a Habilitation in continental Europe.
Dr. Med. (Danish: dr.med.) is now by law a higher degree than the Ph.D. (Danish: ph.d.-graden). The traditional prerequisite for obtaining a Dr.Med. degree is holding a cand.med. degree. Until the 19th century, the licentiate degree was also a prerequisite for obtaining the Dr.Med. Today, the recently introduced Danish Ph.D. degree (officially the successor and equivalent of the former licentiate degree) is sometimes obtained before the Dr.Med. degree. According to the Danish Agency for International Education, "mature researchers may obtain the traditional higher Danish doctoral degree (doktorgrad), usually after a minimum of 5–8 years of individual and original research (following a candidatus degree [...] or a ph.d. degree in the relevant field of study) and public defence of a dissertation."