Medical academicians have failed to develop meaningful programs of continuing education for practitioners, asserts George E. Miller, MD, director of research in medical education at the University of Illinois College of Medicine.
The researcher stirred controversy at a recent meeting of the Section on Continuing Medical Education, Association of American Medical Colleges, by attacking the programming of continuing education.
"... lest there be any doubt, let me state bluntly the conclusion to which I have been led by the inescapable evidence of our failures: we have been educating for the wrong thing," he said.
Dr. Miller said the basic purpose of continuing education is to improve the quality of patient care.
Programs of continuing education, he said, are based upon a categorical content model which, in turn, is based upon the assumption "derived from the long tradition of the schools" that the practitioners who learn more about topics will transform this