What Is Continuing Medical Education?

Continuing education seminars help medical personnel stat up to date with new developments in their field. There are seminars and conferences available on just about every topic in the medical profession, from drug therapy to new legislation. The conferences are a good place to make and improve relationships with other people in the medical field. The conferences are often presented by drug companies and manufactures, so they can be biased in their presentations.

Licensing Requirement

• Every year there are new advances in medical technology and drug therapy. To ensure that doctors are staying current with new medical breakthroughs, licensing bodies often require that physicians take a designated number of continuing education classes per year. This is often a requirement for nursing personnel as well to ensure they are staying current with their skill and knowledge.

Seminars

• Continuing education is often presented in seminars at conferences. Many topics are available, offering different levels of credit. There are even wet labs where physicians and nursing staff can get hands-on training with new technologies and techniques. There are usually a lot of freebies and free trials of the drug or instruments discussed.

Topics

• The topics at these seminars cover the spectrum from drug therapy, ultrasound, surgical tools, holistic medicine and others. Typically, the conference is put on by a manufacturer or drug company wanting to showcase a new development and how it performed in clinical trials. The medical governing bodies will often hold seminars on the latest in medical law and legislation keeping physicians current in all areas relating to their practice.

Meet and Greet

• The bigger conferences are often well attended, and are held in places like Las Vegas, making them great opportunities to meet and strengthen relationships within people in the medical community. Doctors often run into cases that stump them; it is helpful to have friends in other areas of medical expertise to bounce ideas off of. These conferences allow a great atmosphere to meet new specialists who might be invaluable down the road.

Down Side

• The only potential drawback of these conferences is that, since they are held by drug companies and medical supply companies, they are often skewed toward the benefits of just their products. No practicing physician has the time to attend every seminar and get the full picture, so the companies throwing the conferences at the best hotels with the most freebies are often the ones who succeed in pushing their agendas.