Weill Medical College of Cornell University is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care, and the advancement of the art and science of medicine. To this end, the mission of its Continuing Medical Education program is to improve patient care by providing lifelong educational opportunities for physicians based upon identified needs that will in turn improve the health care of patients both now and for future generations. Another goal is to improve the career satisfaction of physicians by providing them with educational opportunities which keep them current with the latest developments in medicine, while simultaneously offering our faculty and CME participants the opportunity to interact with physicians at other institutions through our CME activities.

The Medical College is committed to the maintenance and continued development of a community of scientific and clinical scholarship. The scope of the CME program should appropriately include all areas of medicine based on an assessment of physicians' educational needs. It is reasonable that Weill Cornell's CME offerings for the local medical community be concentrated in areas where the Medical College and its affiliates have recognized excellence, while its in-house activities should attempt to complement our academic and clinical strengths.

The potential participants for Weill Cornell's CME activities are intended to be:

• the physicians on the staffs of the Medical College and its affiliated hospitals;
• alumni(ae) of the Medical College and the Medical Center, and current medical students;
• all physicians located in the communities surrounding the Center and our affiliates (i.e. the New York Metropolitan Area);
• all other physicians

To address these participants' educational needs, activities and services provided by Weill Cornell's Continuing Medical Education program are primarily live courses and conferences. However, in response to changing physician needs and new technologies, we intend to produce enduring materials, including internet-based activities, although they are not currently a major focus of our educational efforts. Collaborating with extramural organizations of recognized merit to offer jointly sponsored programs will also be considered part of our mission.

The overall CME program efforts should result in activities that succeed in the transmission and application of knowledge of medicine. Understanding the impact of our CME activities on patient care is central to the mission of our program. As such, we intend to assess the outcome of our programs, with studies undertaken to assess changes in participant's knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors as a result of participation in Weill Cornell's CME activities, and to endeavor to understand the impact these have on patient care.