BMJ 1998;316:771-774 ( 7 March )

Education and debate

Continuing medical education

Interprofessional working and continuing medical education

Editorial by Toghill

Linda A Headrick, associate professor of medicine, ^a Peter M Wilcock, specialist in healthcare improvement, ^b Paul B Batalden, professor of paediatrics. ^c

^a Department of Medicine, Metro Health Medical Center, Room 221, 2500 Metro Health Drive, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44109, USA, ^b Bournemouth University Institute of Health and Community Studies, Bournemouth BH12 5BB, ^c Health Care Improvement and Leadership Development, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH 03755, USA

Correspondence to: Dr Headrick lah5@po.cwru.edu

Series editors: Hans Asbjørn Holm and Tessa Richards

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The increased focus on the results of professional practice (that is, the health outcomes of individuals and populations) creates two related tensions which will be considered in this paper. The first is the need for improved working and collaboration among different health professionals; the second is the demand for a broader vision of continuing medical education (CME).

Almost everyone who seeks medical care interacts with more than one health professional. The number of professionals involved and the importance of their ability to work collaboratively increases with the complexity of the patient's needs. New initiatives to improve management of diseases such as asthma, diabetes, or congestive heart failure invariably point out the need for interprofessional collaboration.¹ Increasingly, the "myth of the omnipotence of the independent practitioner" is being challenged as we discover the gains in quality and savings in cost when health professionals work together well.²

At the same time, traditional . . . [Full text of this article]

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