Each year for the past 11 years, the AMA Council on Medical Education has assembled in The Journal a list of all continuing education courses for physicians to be offered in that year. The 12th such annual listing will now be found on pages 421-504 in this issue.
An impressive array of courses is included. Over 400 institutions and organizations in almost every state will collaborate in the production and presentation of more than 1,600 courses. Nearly every conceivable subject area in medicine is represented, and a physician should have little difficulty in finding some courses which are within his particular area of interest.
Admittedly, the value of continuing medical education can not be measured in numbers of courses. Impressive as it is, the assembled list does not guarantee that anything important is happening. Does it really matter whether there are 1,500 courses, or only 500, or perhaps none at