Postgraduate Medical Education in New England.

A REVIEW of postgraduate or continuing education of physicians in the New England area of the United States requires at the outset clear definition of the ground to be covered in this presentation. It is apparent that the term 'postgraduate' does not have precisely the same meaning for members of the British and the American medical professions. On inquiry it has been learned that in the United Kingdom postgraduate is a designation of generic scope, covering all advanced education and training; formal and informal, following graduation from medical school. By contrast, until recently in the United States, it was accepted usage to limit the term to short courses and sessions of refresher type for the physician engaged in active practice. However, recognition by American educators of the shortcomings of such delimitation has resulted in the adoption of the term continuing education which better describes programmes for practitioners. The term graduate medical education has been retained in American usage to designate all fulltime advanced work of hospital residents or fellows, leading to specialization in one field as opposed to a more general type of practice. It is assumed that a registrar in the British system closely resembles the American resident. At the suggestion of the Editor of this Journal, there will be some inclusion of graduate as well as continuing medical educational programmes in this paper, especially residencies in non-university hospitals. Quite obviously clarification of definitions is only the first step in working out better understanding