Medical education in Spain: current status and new challenges.

As in other countries, medical education in Spain is structured across three distinct stages: undergraduate or basic medical education; postgraduate specialized training; and continuing medical education. The aim of this article is to give an overview of the current state of these three stages, discussing the strengths and weaknesses and the challenges facing each one in the coming years, and how Spain can look to the international community to support change. We suggest that the undergraduate medical education system should be adapted to Spain's new social requirements and requires to be increasingly aligned with postgraduate training. We suggest that continuing medical education should develop its Continuous Professional Development programmes to ensure the permanent competence of Spanish medical professionals. The European Higher Education arena, as defined by the Bologna Declaration, provides many opportunities as well as a challenging situation for improving any current weaknesses in the Spanish medical education system.