In 1985 a series of international conferences on medical education was initiated in Ottawa, Canada. Colloquially called the "Ottawa's", the aim of these conferences has been to regularly assemble - every two years - professionals from around the world involved in the field of health sciences, especially in the area of medical education. From July 13th to 16th, 2002, the tenth edition of the Ottawa International Conference in Medical Education took place at its birthplace, the city of Ottawa, where the first of these conferences was organized.

The number of participants at this last Conference was more than eight hundred, confirming the further consolidation of this meeting as an important international forum for the interchange of experiences and of educational innovations that can contribute substantially to improve the formative and summative instruments used to train health professionals in the participants' countries of origin. Up to the present, the vast majority of participants as well as presenters have been coming from English-speaking countries- Canada, the United Kingdom and the USA. However, there has been a small but growing presence of European and South American colleagues. Ten Spanish individuals participated in the last conference, 8 of whom are associated with the Clinical Competences Assessment Unit (UACCC) of the Institute of Health Studies (IES) of Catalonia. It continues to be an ongoing challenge to incorporate French professionals into these conferences, who thus far have had little presence.

The day before the Conference two full-day and four half-day workshops took place. The Conference itself was structured into the following types of sessions-plenary sessions, large sessions, symposia, and smaller sessions. There were four plenary sessions: the first one was devoted to advances made in the field of evaluation in medical education; the second to the development of teaching personnel and medical school curriculums; the third to on-line education and to case simulations; and the fourth, taking place on the last day of the Conference, was devoted to conclusions in terms of what had been presented in the Conference and to future courses of action. The nine large sessions were dedicated to specific subjects of special interest: the update of the tasks for the groups reviewing the best evidence in medical education related to the BEME (Best Evidence Medical Education) Collaboration; educating professionals for patient safety; controversies in medical education; competency frameworks for residency education; large scale OSCE's and simulated patient testing; international experiences in sharing information about assessment methodology and setting standards; content in long distance learning, and an update on patient simulations and simulators. The six symposia were dedicated, as in previous Ottawa editions, to specific topics: improving the content of on-line medical education; assessing and managing physicians in practice; standards for postgraduate medical education; approaches to developing leaders in medical education; how to link practice to learning; and high stakes testing (the state of the art). Apart from those large sessions, a great number of smaller sessions were developed, with a miscellaneous assortment of topics and educational levels: 32 workshops, 56 oral presentation sessions, 12 demos, and 22 poster presentation sessions.

The Catalan group of health care education professionals, all linked to the Clinical Competences Unit at the Institute of Health Studies (IES) of Barcelona, and all staff members of the Institute or representatives of different nursing or medical societies, made a great effort to participate actively in the Conference, submitting 2 oral short communications (validity of OSCE's in family medicine and training tutors of residency programs) and 11 posters (professional competencies assessment in Catalonia; assessment of clinical skills in nurses, midwives, and in final year medical students; evaluation of training in communication skills; professional competences assessment for family practitioners, geriatricians, pediatricians and neonatologists; formative assessment of family medicine residents; family physicians' opinions of OSCE's; and certification of medical transportation technicians).

For Conference attendees speaking primarily Spanish or French, the organizing committee provided group encounters in their respective languages, which allowed these participants to share in their native tongue their experiences on different projects currently being developed in their countries in the field of health sciences education.

11th International Ottawa Conference on Medical Education in Barcelona

Finally, we would like to remind you that the upcoming 11th Ottawa Conference will give you the opportunity to attend the first of these conferences to be held in a Mediterranean country, and that all of you are not only invited to come to the Conference in Barcelona, but to actively participate in its organization.

In the coming months, this 11th Ottawa Conference website will offer you extensive general and specific information on the next conference, and will be updated on a regular basis.

We look forward to seeing you in Barcelona, where we hope you will enjoy simultaneously the 11th Ottawa Conference, the beautiful city of Barcelona, and the 2004 UNESCO Forum of Cultures, which, not coincidentally, will be held in Barcelona during the same time period as the Conference.

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BCM
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