The current stance of Continuous Medical Education and Continuous Professional Development in the world

The goal of Continuous Medical Education (CME) is to maintain and develop health professionals، knowledge، skill and performance. In this study، we reviewed the current stance of CME activities in the world. We searched Science Direct، Blackwell، Proquest، CINAHL and PubMed databases from January 2010 till May 2014 using the key words “Continuous Medical Education” and “Continuous Professional Development”. 57 articles were found from which 23 were included in the study. In this article we reviewed and introduced the concept and current stance of CME in European countries، practice-based CME، accreditation of CME programs، related challenges and proposed suggestions in the literature. CME is an ongoing professional learning process. This comprehensive approach is a point of focus in many developed and developing countries and there are various applied models. Determining appropriate model in Iran، needs further research.