Preliminary sketch of medical residency in cardiology. Committee of Medical Residency and Training in Cardiology SBC/FUNCOR.

In mid-1997, the new board of directors of SBC/ FUNCOR established the Committee of Medical Residency and Training to assist with the evaluation of training in cardiology. Besides providing subsidies and criteria for accreditation of the courses, this committee was encouraged to address the problem of cardiologists’ training in our country. During six months of work, the committee concluded that, despite the apparent dichotomy between the official programs of Medical Residency (MR) approved by the Brazilian Department of Education and Culture and those endorsed by SBC/FUNCOR, the establishment of a link between the two institutions was a priority. The following proposal resulted from this recognition of the need for greater cooperation and was developed from contributions of participants from the main cardiology MR program in São Paulo state, during the seminar “Medical Residency and Brazilian Society of Cardiology”, held on February 7, 1998 at the SBC/FUNCOR headquarters. Subsequently with the approval of the board of directors of SBC, this project was presented to the National Committee of Medical Residency (NCMR) in April 1998, and was well received by its members. Both groups recognized that a proposal was needed. In conjunction with NCMR, a national seminar would be held to carefully examine and define the main consensual proposals. We present here the proposal in its preliminary form in the hopes of inspiring discussion of this significant topic affecting the evolution of cardiological education in our country.