[Medical residency and certification in neurology]

Medical residency is the most appropriate form of post-graduate training in the various areas of Medicine. During residency young doctors have close contact with teachers at the bedside approach and management of a wide variety of situations in the actual practice of the profession. It is in this period that basic technical skills and methods of learning through medical observation and scientific discussions develop and the comprehension and sympathy toward suffering disease imposes upon man deepen. The medical societies have the ultimate responsibility to qualify Residency Programs in the various specialties, as well as to establish the standards of qualification doctors must fulfill to be eligible for certification. Continued government intervention on these issues in the last years in Brazil have brought catastrophic consequences for the medical education in this country. The Brazilian Academy of Neurology must expand its educational programs and define the standards of competence for a Neurologist. At the time Brazil returns to democratic life it is challenging for the medical profession to resume their right in relation to qualification of their own members.