Continuing medical education in New York County: physician attitudes and practices.

New York County physicians were surveyed by questionnaire concerning their attitudes and practices regarding continuing medical education (CME). There were 1,558 responders, and they included those practicing in shared health facilities (SHF) and random samples of academicians on the faculties of the four medical schools and of the entire physician population of Manhattan. Reading professional books and journals was regarded as by far the most important CME activity by all three groups of physicians, and this activity consumed about four hours per week. All physicians spent several days and often as much as two weeks per year attending professional meetings and formal postgraduate courses. The former were rated as not very useful and the latter as quite useful for CME. Major impediments to CME participation for all groups were time away from home and practice, expense, loss of income, and scheduling problems. Relevance, quality, and organization of CME courses were not major impediments. SHF physicians differed little from other physicians in their attitudes, perceptions, and practices concerning CME.