The Cleveland Clinic enjoys a strong reputation for outstanding care. U.S News & World Report (2008) has declared that we are one of the four "Best Hospitals" in America. Overall, the magazine ranked all Cleveland Clinic's 16 specialties among the top hospitals of the nation. Ten of its specialties were listed among the top 10 in the United States.

The Cleveland Clinic has more than 1,800 physicians on staff, representing approximately 120 specialties and subspecialties. In 2007, they provided for 3.5 million outpatient visits and 50,455 hospital admissions. Patients came for treatment from every state and more than 80 countries. Its Lerner Research Institute is one of the country's leaders in NIH-funded research. Its Education Division sponsors one of the largest physician graduate training programs. The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine accepted its first class in 2004. It combines education and research in an innovative program that will graduate 32 medical students each year who are mentored to become physician-scientists.

The Center for Continuing Education is committed to sharing that wealth of knowledge with physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals across the country and all over the world. This Center is responsible for one of the largest and most diverse CME programs anywhere. In 2007, 86,015 CME certificates were awarded. Our continuing education program recently was certified by Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education as exemplary in its programs and organization and awarded "accreditation with commendation."

Our CME offerings include:

• Live CME Courses

  In 2008, The Cleveland Clinic will sponsor or jointly sponsor 160 live CME courses, as well as 70 different regularly scheduled activities. The Center has been engaged in an increasing number of international meetings; some provide CME from the Cleveland Clinic, others provide CME from national sources. A four-fold increase in the number of these activities has yielded more than a two-fold increase in attendees at CCF-branded courses. Course brochures are mailed to select target audiences and are available to be viewed by everyone on this web site. Our attendees can register online for most Cleveland Clinic courses and we encourage you do so. Our recently upgraded online course registration system speeds the enrollment process, by providing instant registration and an online receipt.

  Our live courses encourage audience interaction, often using the electronic keypad Audience Response System. Hands-on workshops and live surgical demonstrations are standard features for many courses.

  See our schedule of live courses

• Online Activities

  The Center launched its web site, Clevelandclinicmeded.com, in 2000 to provide medical information to health care professionals, to provide free CME opportunities online, and to provide information about live CME opportunities. For those who want the convenience of anytime learning, the web site now offers more than 110 free online CME activities, over 40 being CME on-demand webcasts, and 20 being CME podcasts. More than 27,000 CME certificates were awarded to online learners in 2007.

  Medical information is the cornerstone of our web site. Specific subsites provide pharmacologic data including dosing and toxicity data. Additional information is available including viral hepatitis, heart failure, obesity, venous thromboembolism, b-cell therapies, minimally invasive surgery, and other special topics.

• The Disease Management Project

  At the core of our web site is the Disease Management Project, a virtual textbook of medicine. Center Director William D. Carey, M.D., presides as editor-in-chief, over a 14-person editorial board. The editorial board provides guidance to more than 120 Cleveland Clinic physicians who have written chapters related to specific disease states and treatment strategies. Thanks to educational grants from pharmaceutical companies, the Center has been able to provide this valuable resource to medical professionals free of charge. An emphasis on nationally accepted standards of care helps ensure that our treatment recommendations are based on sound scientific research.

  The success of our web site (more than 3 million visits in 2006), and our user feedback has been most gratifying.