Continuing medical education and the anesthesiologist

There are a large variety of scheduled activities and courses available to meet the continuing medical education (CME) needs of anesthesiologists. The presentation of CME material varies in format and delivary style. The reas ons for attending CME activities include continuing medical education (CME) , needs of anesthesiologists. The presentation of CME material varies in fo rmat and delivery style. The reasons for attending CME activities include l icensure requirements, participation in state and national societies, keepi ng current with technology, review of old subject material, participation a s a lecturer, and other personal reasons. Finding occurs via personal funds , employer support, commercial support, or by research grants. External bod ies, such as the American Council of Continuing Medical Education and the A merican Medical Association, have imposed guidelines in these areas. Method s to evaluate CME activities include retrospective needs assesment, focus g roups and complex systems such as the CRISIS criteria. Self-directed CME ca n be evaluated by data collection that identifies how quickly information i s recieved and by the effect of this data on measureable outcome. In the fu ture, CME will increasingly utilize simulators and multimedia computers. Mu ltimedia can bring CME to the physician as opposed to the physsician travel ing to a CME site. Virtual reality and artificial intelligence are on the h orizon and mayinterface well with the field of anesthesiology due to the te chnical nature of the discipline and the increasing use of the computer and electronic data collection already occuring in Clinical practice (C) 1991 by Elsevier Science Inc.