How to Verify a Colombian Doctor's License with ReTHUS (Step by Step)

Ten minutes. That is what it takes to check whether the surgeon whose before-and-after photos you have been admiring is actually a registered specialist — and most international patients never do it, because nobody told them the tool exists. It does, it is public, and this is the walkthrough.

What ReTHUS is

ReTHUS — the Registro Único Nacional del Talento Humano en Salud — is Colombia's national registry of health professionals, maintained under the Ministry of Health. Everyone legally authorized to practice a health profession in Colombia appears in it, along with their authorized profession and registered specialties. It is the difference between “this person says they are a plastic surgeon” and “the Colombian state registers this person as a plastic surgeon.”

Step 1: Get the full legal name

Ask the provider directly for the doctor's full name as registered — Colombian names typically carry two surnames, and you want all of them to avoid false matches. Frame it exactly like the serious patient you are:

Watch the reaction as much as the answer. Professionals respond instantly and often approvingly — they invest heavily in credentials and are glad someone checks. Hesitation, deflection, or “why do you need that?” is a conversation-ending answer arriving early, which is the polite thing for a red flag to do.

Step 2: Search the registry

1. Go to the official ReTHUS consultation portal — it is public and free, hosted on the Ministry of Health's SISPRO systems. Search “ReTHUS consulta” and confirm you are on a gov.co domain before entering anything.
2. Search by the full name (or national ID number if provided — some providers share it precisely to make verification easy).
3. The record shows the profession, the registered specialty or specialties, and the authorization status.

The portal is in Spanish; your browser's translate function handles it fine. What you are confirming is not subtle: the person exists in the registry, and the specialty matches the work you are hiring them for.

Step 3: Read the specialty line like it matters — because it is the whole point

This is where verification earns its ten minutes. In Colombia, as anywhere, a licensed general physician is legally a doctor — but a general physician is not a registered specialist. The gap between “doctor who performs aesthetic procedures” and “registered plastic surgeon” is measured in years of formal residency training, and it is exactly the gap where bad outcomes concentrate. The same logic applies across specialties: ophthalmology for your eyes, periodontics or maxillofacial surgery where your dental case calls for it, reproductive medicine for fertility work.

So the question is never just “is this person in ReTHUS?” It is: “does the registered specialty match my procedure?”

Step 4: The specialty-society check

For surgical specialties, professional society membership adds a second signal. The clearest example: the Colombian Society of Plastic Surgery (SCCP) admits only formally trained plastic surgeons — membership cannot be bought with a weekend course. Ask “are you SCCP?” and check the society's public member directory. Equivalent societies exist across specialties; your procedure-level guide on our network covers which ones matter for your case.

Step 5: When something does not match

• No record found: re-check spelling and try surname variations first — transcription errors happen. If a careful search still finds nothing, stop. Do not send money to someone the registry cannot see.
• Registered, but no specialty listed for the work in question: ask the provider directly for an explanation and independent documentation. “Trained abroad” or “years of experience” without registered specialty status is precisely the pattern this check exists to surface.
• Name matches, details feel off: bring it to the video consult and ask. A legitimate doctor resolves registry questions in thirty seconds, on camera, without discomfort.

Verification is necessary, not sufficient — it is one item on the full Stage 2 scorecard alongside facility licensing, the complication-transfer question, and the video consult. But it is the item that takes ten minutes and filters out the worst outcomes in the entire industry. Do it for every name, every time, including anyone we point you toward.