[The why of medical updating]

The scientific basics of the medical practice have changed dramatically. Certain aspects of medicine are fundamental and eternal. On the other hand, the practice of medicine is always changing. Physicians must be prepared to face these changes and reaffirm those that are fundamental. Being a doctor requires at least three attributes: Having the knowledge of clinical and biomedical science to understand the patient's illness. Having a good registry of the data (written and mental), and having responsibility toward his/her patient and the medical community for professional behavior and adequate ethics. The following points are essential in medical practice: 1. To value and respect our own medical colleagues who may think differently from us. 2. Medical practice is an intellectual activity that through the scientific method creates and accumulates knowledge about life and the organization of human beings under their different environmental conditions. 3. Working in tune with the biopsychosocial hippocratic method that should prevail over the biological-lesional method of illness. 4. Accurate medicine should not be taught solely by giving data, but also the use of the data. 5. Mistakes in medical practice occur frequently in performance, planning, diagnosis, and in active or latent treatment or prevention. 6. In Mexico, it is necessary to reinforce and specify the identity of the general physician in the function of his/her own history and the methods of older physicians. 7. Physician formation must take into account all of the above precepts.