CME: Points of view	December 2007

In parallel with our feature on continuing medical education, Med Ad News invited a variety of providers, observers, and industry experts to offer their answer in editorial form to the question, “What is the future of CME?”

Critics of Industry-supported Certified CME Ignore Value to Prescribers and their Patients

The current controversies over industry-supported certified continuing medical education so cloud the landscape these days that it’s almost easy to overlook the most important fact: Clinicians continue to flock to these programs to learn about new and better ways to diagnose and manage disease and return to their practices better prepared to treat their patients.

The future of medical education: focus on physicians

In the increasingly regulated health-care environment, some have questioned the value of continuing medical education.  Is CME just another onerous and unnecessary requirement that physicians must deal with, or does it truly benefit practitioners and patients?

Whither CME?

Where do I think the future of continuing medical education is heading? That’s a question that encompasses a lot of territory. Let me start by putting some limits on my soothsaying to areas I know something about: pharma-supported CME and the use of technology in delivering CME.