[Continuing medical education in Croatia and the European Union]

The Continuing Medical Education (CME), with attention to other forms of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in Croatia and the today endeavors in the European Union, are presented. In European Union the formal CME is in its starting. The "European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education" (EACCME) of the UEMS is established, which has formulated the principles of continuing education, the credit hours and their realizing, that would enable the mutual recognition of education in all European countries. In Croatia the starting of CME was at beginning of the 20th century, when the professional societies of Croatian Medical Association were founded. CPD was almost exclusively connected to activities of "Andrija Stampar" School of Public Health, to the School of Medicine in Zagreb and partly in Rijeka, which established a great number of postgraduate studies. The CME i.e. the courses of education were tightly connected to activities of the Croatian Medical Association, of its professional societies and its Academy of Medical Sciences, but also to activities of School of Medicine in Zagreb and Rijeka, and recently in Split and Osijek. Since 1995 the third partner, the Croatian Medical Chamber joined too. The number of CME meetings during 1998 is presented. The approximate calculation for needed annual courses of CME for all medical specialties in Croatia is presented. The formation of the National Authority for CME is suggested, in which all the interested institutions should be represented.