EDITORIAL

The 21st Congress of the Spanish Society for Medical Education. Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (9-11 October 2013)

XXI Congreso de la Sociedad Española de Educación Médica. Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (9-11 de octubre de 2013)

Jordi Palés-Argullós

Presidente de la Sociedad Española de Educación Médica (SEDEM).
E-mail: jpales@ub.edu

Conflict of interests: None declared.

The 21st Congress of the Spanish Society for Medical Education (SEDEM) will be held at the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid on 9th, 10th and 11th October 2013. As in the last congress, held in Valladolid, this year's event will also include the 2nd Hispano-Portuguese Conference on Medical Education, where colleagues from our neighbouring country are invited to participate so that together we can share our different educational experiences. In these opening lines I also wish to give a warm welcome to our colleagues from Latin America, who year after year are attending the congress in ever-increasing numbers.

This year the congress presents two main plenary sessions. The first is concerned with the Bachelor's degree. Five years after implementing the Bologna reform, it is time to weigh up the results obtained so far. Hence, in this first session, a number of deans and undergraduates from both Spain and Portugal will review how this process has developed within their own contexts. The second plenary session will be devoted to specialised training, which is currently also undergoing a process of change. Heads of study and tutors, deans of medical schools, resident physicians and undergraduates studying the last years of their degree will discuss the problems arising from this phase of the educational continuum.

Participants at the congress will also have a range of other activities available to them, such as workshops, meetings with experts, and symposiums about the state-of-the-art in medical education, including: the evaluation of competencies and of professional performance, specialised training, multi-professional training, communication skills, the teaching of evidence-based medicine, the transition from graduate to specialist, the teacher's new roles, simulation-based medical education, and medical education and medical education research units.

One special session I would like to draw specific attention to is one that will be devoted to the presentation of the book entitled Learning to become a doctor: shared social responsibility, published by the Fundación Educación Médica and which addresses a topic that is crucial today, namely shared social responsibility in the process of training doctors. This work, published by the Foundation, will soon undoubtedly become an essential reference in the same way as The doctor of the future did in the past.

The aim of the congress has also been to act as a forum in which to present and discuss teaching innovations and, accordingly, as usual a considerable amount of time will be set aside on the programme to allow the growing number of participants to present communications either orally or as panels. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage you to take part by presenting your research.

The opening session will include the Lección Miriam Friedman, which will be delivered this year by the new President of the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE), Professor Trudie Roberts from the University of Leeds (United Kingdom), who will speak on the topic of 'Teaching and learning professionalism'. Continuing with the tradition that started five years ago, the opening session will also include the awarding of the 5th Antonio Galle-go Prize for excellence in a career in medical education. This award coincides with the 43rd anniversary of the creation of the SEDEM and the ceremony takes place in the faculty where Professor Gallego, the founder of the society, spent most of his university career, teaching and researching.

I do not want to finish this editorial without expressing the SEDEM's gratitude to the local committee, led by Professor Jesús Millán Núñez-Cortés, for the huge effort that has been put into organising the event, and to the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Professor José Luis Álvarez-Sala Walther, for his warm welcome and hospitality. Thanks are also due to the FEM (Revista de la Fundación Educación Médica) for providing us with the opportunity to present the congress in the journal.

I hope that the topics to be dealt with at the congress are of interest to you and you find them useful in your work as medical educators. At the same time, I also hope you will enjoy the warm welcome offered by the city of Madrid, with all the attractions it has in store for visitors.