Phil R. Manning "Can you prove that continuing education really makes
any difference?" Over the years, educators concerned with continuing
education (CE) for health professionals have either heard or voiced that
question in one form or another more than once. But because of the
difficulty in measuring the specific effects of a given course, program,
or conference, the question has not been answered satisfactorily. Since
CE is costly, since CE is now mandated in some states for
re-registration, and since its worth has not been proven in for- mal
evaluation research, the pressure to evaluate remains strong. The
question can be partially answered by a more careful definition of
continuing education, particularly the goals to be achieved by CEo
Another part of the answer depends on the development of a stronger
commitment to evaluation of CE by its providers. But a significant part
of the answer might be provided through the improvement of methods used
in evaluation of continuing education for health professionals. To
address this last concern, the Development and Demonstration Center in
Continuing Education for the Health Professions of the Univer- sity of
Southern California organized and conducted a meeting of academi- cians
and practitioners in evaluation of continuing education. During a
three-day period, participants heard formal presentations by five
invited speakers and then discussed the application of the state of the
art of educa- tional evaluation to problems of evaluation of continuing
education for health professionals.