LAUSR

What we understand in theory by update is the process of replacing a product or content for a new, improved version of it. Recertification, however, is the act of supervising professional training and performance by which an individual or a group can continue engaging in it. Both terms would fall under the same process of the active, continuous teaching and learning involved in Ongoing Professional Training. To a certain extent, being updated would be a commitment of personal responsibility to be concluded by individual initiatives. In contrast, being accredited would be a responsibility which transcends the individual and involves a supervisory entity. In our environment, updating and recertification are rights and should be obligations for maintaining and optimizing medical practice competency and our professionalism. The beneficiary in all these cases would be the same: in the abstract sense, the healthcare system and society. Focusing on recertification, the empirical obligation of supervision is coupled with the pragmatic, that may become the demand of our patients. To sum up, society may hold us accountable for what we do and how we do it. The starting point would be the ECMEC credit systems of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS), in force since 2000. In Spain, leaving aside the accreditation commissions of the autonomous communities, this would be the Spanish Accreditation System for Continuing Medical Education (SEAFORMEC for its initials in Spanish). Recertification in Spain is regulated by Law 44/2003, of 21st November, of the Health Professions Regulation. However, despite good intentions, it has not yet got off the ground. In fact recently, the Ministry of Health insisted on the need for permanent review of teaching methodologies and teaching for a better adaptation of professional knowledge to scientific and technological evolution, and to the population’s health needs. It also proposed the proce-