If formal CME is ineffective, why do physicians still participate?

Formal or traditional CME can be criticized because organizers often ignore adult learning principles when designing courses. Critics also suggest that formal CME courses have limited impact on attendees' behaviors and practices. The authors agree that attention must be paid to pedagogic principles to assure success of educational courses, but feel that the extant negative evidence related to the impact of formal CME is narrow in scope and of inadequate strength to seriously damn formal approaches. Survey responses were received from 853 practicing physicians who say they still regularly attend formal CME courses. They are motivated to attend to satisfy specific professional needs and for personal reasons. Formal CME is still popular despite what its critics say. The authors are convinced that attention to physicians' perceived needs, effective use of social marketing strategies, and adherence to adult learning principles can assure successful delivery of CME and that formal CME is a useful complement to physician-driven informal CME.