MEDICAL EDUCATION is a lifelong process whose goal is continuous improvement in the knowledge and skills needed for practice. Of the 4 stages of medical education—premedical, undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing medical education (CME)—there is little doubt that the last one is not only the longest but also the most challenging. First, it is self-directed and active, meaning that there is no passive "spoon feeding" of information by others, and each physician is personally responsible to get the job done. Second, there is the problem of selecting what is most important from the vast amount of new research being reported every day. Given the global explosion of new information, new technology, new patterns of health care delivery, and emerging bioethical issues, the people we serve expect that we have the ability and self-confidence to continuously modify the scope and content of practice—and our practice styles—to respond to the changing cognitive, technological, and socioeconomic environment of medicine.