EDITORIAL

Welcome to the republication of Educación Médica

Bienvenida a la reedición de Educación Médica

Arcadi Gual, Maria Nolla-Domenjó and Jordi Palés-Argullós

Fundación Educación Médica (FEM).

Correspondence

The publishing company Elsevier has just retrieved a publication that it discarded some time ago: Educación Médica. This is undoubtedly marvellous news and here at the Fundación Educación Médica (FEM) we can but put our hands together and applaud the promoters behind the salvaging of this journal and congratulate ourselves on what we have achieved. Hurray! Hurray!

But where has Educación Médica been all these years? Let's go back in time a little. In 1998, Ediciones Doyma, with the unconditional support of its director, José A. Dotú, brought the journal Educación Médica into being under the direction of our foundation, the FEM. Those early days were brimming with effort and enthusiasm to create a mouthpiece that was open to all those interested in medical education in the Spanish-speaking world. After five years of successful non-stop publication of the journal, Ediciones Doyma, faced with a growing number of different adversities, was taken over by Elsevier. That same year, the new owners, who did not seem very interested in our field of knowledge, handed the masthead of the publication over to the FEM, which continued with the project with renewed spirits and the same enthusiasm. Thanks to the support of Viguera Editores, the FEM continued to publish Educación Médica for a whole decade, up until the year 2012, when Elsevier reclaimed the temporary transfer the FEM had been enjoying up until then. From then on, the FEM and its team continued to publish under a new name, FEM-Revista de la Fundación Educación Médica. Thus, with a great deal of effort and altruistic dedication, and overcoming more than its fair share of difficulties, the Foundation has directed for over 18 years on the run not only the above-mentioned journal but also several other publications in the field of medical education and has been very active in this area.

Since it was founded almost 20 years ago, the FEM, a non-profit organisation, has been totally convinced of the need to make this new area of knowledge, medical education, more widely known and increase its prestige. Hence, the foundation has worked boldly to keep a publication with the highest scientific quality alive and active. Behind this generous effort made by the FEM there are undoubtedly a series of names and surnames, but it is also only fair to acknowledge, as indispensable parties to this achievement, the backing and patronage of several national and international institutions involved in medical education, such as the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE), the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME), the Pan-American Federation of Associations of Medical Schools (FEPAFEM-PAFAMS), the Spanish National Conference of Deans of Faculties of Medicine (CNDMED) and the Spanish Society for Medical Education (SEDEM), which from the very earliest stages onwards gave their institutional support to the foundation in its undertakings. Equally important has been the support of an unbeatable publishing team that the directors of the journal have been able to rely on at all times, and who deserve public acknowledgement for their labours.

But what we are dealing with here is not this philanthropic work carried out by the FEM for nearly two decades to foster medical education, but the recovery of the journal Educación Médica. Indeed, after three years of absolute neglect, Elsevier has entrusted the direction of the journal to a reliable and experienced team made up of Dr Millán Núñez-Cortés, Dr Gutiérrez Fuentes and Dr Morán Barrios. With the sponsorship of the Fundación Lilly, their mission will be to resuscitate the publication. The extensive track-record of the new directors of the journal in the field of medical education and the determined backing of such prosperous institutions as the Cátedra Educación-Fundación Lilly guarantee the success of this new era of the journal. The first issue of this second stage came out during the second quarter of this year. Consequently, medical education in the Spanish-speaking world now has a new platform where medical educators can express themselves and publish their research in this field. From now on, there will be more opportunities to publish work related to the training of our doctors and other professionals working in the health sciences, the knowledge gained in our field will be made known to a wider public, and there will be more competition and collaboration. For the FEM, the presence of Educación Médica in our milieu undoubtedly stimulates improvement and the need for an additional effort to maintain and increase the quality of our journal.

Competition and collaboration are two sides of the same coin. In fact, both of them occur within a social system that, although divided by conflicts, is united by binding ties. In any case, competition should not wilt the still fragile plant that is medical education in our country. Moreover, cooperation must not inhibit creativity, initiative and differences of opinion. The intelligent attitude is to stimulate variety in the enriching and complementary orientations, defend the truth and increase efficacy.

With this editorial, the FEM wishes to give a heartfelt welcome to the republication of Educación Médica, a journal that it feels especially close to. Welcome!

Correspondence:
Fundación Educación Médica.
Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas I.
Facultad de Medicina.
Universitat de Barcelona.
Casanova, 143. E-08036 Barcelona.
E-mail: agual@fundacioneducacionmedica.cat