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Ann Thorac Surg 2005;80:1985-1987
© 2005 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

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Editorial

Home Schooling

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

^_* Address correspondence to Dr Edmunds, The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 3440 Market Street, Suite 306, Philadelphia, PA 19149 (Email: hank.edmunds@uphs.upenn.edu).

The first 300 words of the full text of this article appear below.

With this issue, The Annals introduces journal-based Continuing Medical Education (CME) for its 10,000 worldwide subscribers. Simultaneously our sister journals will do the same to bring "home schooling" to all members of our profession. For elementary and high school children home schooling by parents or relatives is controversial, but there are few drawbacks to home schooling for cardiac and general thoracic surgeons. Journal-based CME fills a need: 39 states of the United States now require CME credits for renewal of medical licenses and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery has increased the number of CME credits required for renewal of certification. Canada, Japan and soon other countries will require verification of ongoing professional learning. For many practitioners the opportunity to earn CME credits in the domain of their interests and expertise is limited by time, expense, availability and relevance. Specialty journal-based CME overcomes these deficiencies and adds other advantages such as a motivated learner, subject matter directly relevant to practice, exposure to additional articles of interest and "exercise of the brain," which is prescribed for keeping it in working order [1].

Postgraduate continuing medical education may have had European origins in the middle ages, but in the new world the Association of Medical Colleges first suggested mandatory CME in 1932 and formally proposed the requirement in 1940 [2]. In 1947 the American Academy of General Practice mandated that its members acquire 150 hours of CME every three years as a condition for membership. The American Medical Association (AMA) used the same criteria to establish the "Physician's Recognition Award" in 1969. New Mexico was the first state to require CME for renewal of medical licenses in 1971.

These early beginnings stimulated development of a potpourri of CME "activities," which not infrequently featured suspect education at plush spas . . . [Full Text of this Article]