EDITORIAL

Farewell, my friends!

¡Farewell, amigos!

Arcadi Gual

Secretario de la Sociedad Española de Educación Médica (SEDEM). Catedrático de la Facultad de Medicina de la Universitat de Barcelona.

Since it was founded, the principal line of action of the Fundación Educación Médica (FEM) has been the incorporation and diffusion of the know-how that is generated around the world in the area of medical education. To this end, the main instrument of the FEM has been, first, the journal Educación Médica and later FEM-Revista de la Fundación Educación Médica. Advancement is not possible without knowing. Knowing is not possible without researching or disseminating. And this is as valid for medical education as it is for proteomics or cardiology. Hence, we understand that disseminating knowledge is a responsibility that must be assumed by those actually generating the knowledge, the researchers, all the way up to the different public or private institutions involved in that knowledge.

Yet, in the Latin American setting the knowledge, research and dissemination of medical education has not been a prevalent focus of interest. Why? Perhaps owing to social or economic pressures, maybe the routines and comfort of what is familiar, or the prioritisation of research constantly aimed towards novel aspects, which today means translational studies. Or -and why not say it?- it may be due to an interest in personal promotion, which is of course perfectly reasonable, where less value is granted to teaching than to research. Whatever the reason underlying this problem may be, and we shall not go into it here, the FEM understood that it was especially important to keep the journal in the best possible health so as to disseminate all the outcomes our setting generates within the field of medical education.

Throughout the 18 years the Journal has been in existence, 76 ordinary issues, in addition to several special issues, have been published. The body of material that has seen the light over this period is thus clearly considerable. More than 300 original articles and over 100 reviews and collaborations have been published. The frequency of the journal has risen from four to six issues per year. Efforts have been made to adapt to the readers' needs by shifting from paper to the free-access on-line version. The number of reviewers of the original articles has risen from 15 in the early days to over 100 today. At the same time it has gone from what was essentially a local publication to enjoy a truly international dissemination. Over all these years, the author of these lines has had the responsibility and the honour to direct, first of all, Educación Médica and later FEM-Revista de la Fundación Educación Médica. The time has now come to say goodbye and I would like to take this opportunity to share here some of my feelings and also to pose a question to which I do not have a clear answer. As regards my feelings, I would like to express the satisfaction that comes from seeing that the publication has come out punctually, as occurs with the most prestigious journals; all the original articles have been reviewed by professional reviewers, who have accepted them, suggested improvements or rejected them always according to growing standards of quality; the acceptance of original works from a wide range of countries is proof of its international reach; and the citation index, although small in terms of its absolute value, has followed an upward trend. All of these aspects are positive and, thus, I have no reason to hide my feelings of satisfaction.

But although the points I have just mentioned are indicative of the success of our publication, I would like to pose a question to which I have no answer: Can I, as director of the publication, feel satisfied with the course taken by the journal?

Medical education is, undoubtedly, an area in expansion around the world and within the sociocultural setting of Latin America it displays a particularly fast rate of growth. This is to come as no surprise if our aim is to draw closer to the level of implantation of medical education in English-speaking countries. We thus find ourselves before a publication that belongs to a field in expansion. Do you know how many Latin-American professionals are directly involved in medical education? I will not go into adding up the countries, universities, healthcare teaching institutions and health science professionals involved in teaching/learning processes in our sociocultural setting, as it would be a colossal task. I will only say that the number of Latin-American professionals directly involved in medical education runs into hundreds of thousands. That's right, hundreds of thousands. And this vast number of professionals have only published 300 original articles in 18 years?

Some people might think that such a question is rhetorical or even demagogic, but in my opinion this is not at all the case. Of course, this number of original articles must be corrected by also taking into account both the articles by Latin-American authors published in local journals and, more especially, their publications in journals in English-speaking countries. But I am sure that even if we include all that, we would not manage to double the number of originals. So can we really speak of successful diffusion? How is it we have failed to attract the attention of teachers of health sciences so that they disseminate their research outcomes (which are numerous) in medical education journals? I understand that the answer is complex, multifactorial and even systemic, but, assuming my responsibility as editor, I think there must be something that I haven't done right. My answer to the question cannot be 'other factors are to blame'.

Renovation in any job implies the arrival of new blood. Today sees the end of a stage of the journal, which is now under the direction of Prof. Jordi Palés, physician, academic and without a doubt a great expert in the area of medical education in Latin America. The coming years herald a time of prosperity in medical education and the same should also be true of its diffusion. Predicting success in the new management of FEM-Revista de la Fundación Educación Médica should not be read as a prophecy, it is simply what will occur as of tomorrow.