Continuing medical education is at a historic point in its long lifetime. The words of Welch, in 1892, have never been truer: "Medical education is not completed at the medical school: it is only begun." The changes in continuing medical education since the 1950s are many, although rarely dramatic, but certainly will continue to evolve. The current environment of medicine may provide continuing medical education its first mandate to perform and to prove its relevance, importance, and legitimacy. The American Medical Association is committed to assisting physicians as they keep up with new knowledge and information in striving to achieve the best possible patient care.
It is my view, and that of our division, following Manning and Petit,' that most physicians have need of three areas of emphasis (1) practice-specific CME, which assists them in the better practice of their specialtyhbspecialty; (2) instantaneous medical education, "on-the-spot'' CME, for solving specific diagnostic problems; and (3) knowledge of new developments and general advances in medicine. While deciding how to best address these areas, the AMA and other CME providers are also confronted with more specific questions such as the costs of CME and who should pay, the availability of CME at convenient times and locations, the relationship of CME to new developing technologies, the role of medical education in reshaping identified knowledge deficiencies of practitioners, and the potential risk taken by providers of CME when they give specific courses leading to expanded clinical privileges.
We at the A.M.A. are determined to respond to these challenges and to help CME professionals seize this historic opportunity. A number of initiatives are under way, and it may be of interest to recount them for the readers of the Journal.
In 1989 we will begin the publication of a quarterly A.M.A. CME newsletter, to be called CME Report. This newsletter will seek to provide overall general information in the field of CME, to point out specific curriculum areas suggested by various needs assessment processes, and to keep the field broadly informed. l b o of the planned five pages in each issue will focus on international continuing medical education efforts, an outgrowth of the Annenberg Center's international conferences on CME and the increasing interest expressed in our CME system by physicians from other countries.