Opposition to "coercive continuing medical education and mandatory recertification"

A district branch survey on attitudes toward obligatory continuing medical education (CME) and mandatory recertification indicated that most respondents approved the concept of lifelong learning. However, proposed methods of implementation of CME were criticized on grounds of commercialization, bureaucratization, poor quality, wasting time and money, excessive external control over learning, and flawed requirements. Objections to mandatory recertification centered mainly on an abhorrence of Board-type examinations. The author offers suggestions to program directors and sponsors, educational researchers, and CME administrators as to ways to answer these criticisms of CME and recertification.