Mandatory Continuing Education: Sense or Nonsense?

The heroic age of American medicine, responsive to the leadership of Welch, Osler, and their many colleagues, contemporaries, and "pupils," 1 established two basic principles essential for achieving the goals of medical excellence and a high quality of medical care: (1) the physical, biological, social, and behavioral sciences must provide the underpinning of medical education; (2) the physician must remain "a lifelong student"! (In one sense, this soubriquet has been harmful, since educators until recent years have continued to think of the physician in the same role model as their concept of the medical student, a receptacle for information and wisdom, rather than as a mature professional making critical decisions each working day of his life. For a thoughtful discussion of this point, see Groen. 2 ) Now, three quarters of a century later, the flowering of medicine through advances in scientific knowledge is evident to everyone. But medical educators still