This study was framed in the research: Characterization of professional competency-based model in medical education developed in twelve clinical and nine surgical specializations at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Antioquia. Its aim was to inquire about the state of the art in medical postgraduate education. The guiding question was: Where is present-day research headed in medical postgraduate education. For this descriptive, nonexperimental work, 12 bibliographic databases were reviewed and 28 research articles related to graduate medical formation were selected. The findings were compared, analyzed and interpreted. The tendency in research on graduate medical education points to the need of having multi-inter-trans-disciplinary and humanistic proposals based on constructivism; to consider evaluation as a process emphasizing on learning and the participation of students, and to build systems of pedagogical formation of tutors and interactive and flexible curricula. The lack of studies that promote competencies-based training in postgraduate medical education is notorious.