INTRODUCTION:
Revising Portugal's public health medical residency program is essential to meet emerging public health challenges. Despite legislation predicting five-yearly revisions, public health's training program was last revised in 2014 and does not consider emergent topics for training. Increasing system demands and workforce renewal highlight the need for programs that prepare physicians for leadership and multidisciplinary practice to tackle current and future public health threats.

METHODS:
A working group of public health medical residents, including members with previous experience in developing training programmes, conducted a literature review of national regulatory frameworks and international best practices in postgraduate medical education to inform a comprehensive proposal for programme revision. A structured consultation of public health residents, specialists, and related professionals assessed perceptions of the current programme and future needs, using a mixed-methods approach with quantitative and qualitative analysis. The resulting proposal was submitted for public consultation and sent to relevant stakeholders in May 2024.

RESULTS:
The consultation gathered 84 responses. Among physicians (n=67), most (82.1%) considered the current programme inadequate. Limited integration across levels of care, lack of resources, inadequate protected study time, unclear assessment criteria, and the need for adjusted training duration, diversified training sites, and stronger emphasis on practical real-world competencies emerged as concerns. The proposal restructures the residency into core and subject-specific training, integrates hospital practice into community rotations, aligns the first year with the academic calendar, updates curricular content addressing identified gaps in management, leadership and data analysis, grants formal equivalence to a master's degree in public health, expands elective rotations to nine specialized areas, and establishes weekly protected study time.

CONCLUSIONS:
Built by current residents for future residents, this proposal aimed to modernize public health residency training in Portugal, enhancing educational quality, adaptability, and relevance, while strengthening preparedness, leadership, and multidisciplinary competencies of future public health physicians.