What distinguishes a competent doctor in medical education?

Introduction Education is an organized process leading to the acquisition of knowledge, attitudes and skills forward to the status of proficiency. It’s a continuous and dynamic process where attaining each goal opens the perspective of new aims, enabling to structure more efficient strategies for tasks’ execution. In the medical practice, this definition flows through a pre-clinical cycle of human sciences studies, followed by a clinical course of medical training. Currently, the graduation process is complete and University recognizes the competence to practice medicine. However, the reality is inconsistent and society requires a postgraduate training program to ensure that doctors can really practice medicine. The residence time will provide the necessary skills, to become specialists. Although Universities can play a role in post-graduation and specialization, in Portugal, as in other countries, the Ministry of Health and the official Medical Association share that responsibility. In higher education schools, professors are responsible for teaching. A peer evaluation system assesses and validates their expertise in the curricular and pedagogical fields. Out of school, the formative process of medical specialization rests on a doctor with higher experience. The supervisor guides the resident’s training program to achieve the specialist skills. The question is about the competence of the supervisors to do it. Is there any specific profile to become a supervisor? Do they have the necessary skills for the job? Is there any kind of evaluation assessment? In this article, we share our perspective based on Portuguese reality about the actual situation in medical education, the challenges for present and for future in medicine and their impact on education, and the redefinition of supervisors’ role to answer them. The supervisor