CME or Continuing Medical Education encompasses all those who are in the medical field and want to improve their knowledge regarding their specific discipline that they practice for and to stay up to date with the current research, discoveries and methodologies. The education is mainly comprises of distant learning, as the education is done by the means of live shows, lectures recorded either in audio or video format, online or through mail. The learning material provided to the adult is written, reviewed and developed by experts as per current educating requirements in the medical field.

Presently, CME has become a compulsion for the medical personals though out United States. Though it's not implied all over the US but still it has become mandatory like in Arizona it is required by the medical personals to take CME after every two, and update their knowledge accordingly to the current requirements. The regulatory job regarding CME in America is performed by Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) and the American Osteopathic Association.

The foundation and the concept of CME were laid by a famous psychiatrist John Schwartz in 1978. The concept and the goal were to renew the knowledge of clinicians across America by providing them with high quality education. The concept soon became famous amongst hundreds of clinicians and CME became a dependable way for them to satisfy the requirements of modern day medical demands. During its first decade CME was mainly regarding mental health issues and targeted the clinicians working in the field of mental heath but over past 15 years CME has grown it self by including the programs for the clinicians practicing in the field of primary care, neurology, cardiology, pediatrics, oncology and more. A few years later after CME was founded, CME launched Psychiatric Times in 1985, which up till now, is still the top most psychiatric publication in USA. And in 1987 the U.S. Psychiatric & Mental Health Congress was founded which is, to date, stands on the second spot on the largest industry trade show.

Later on, in 1999 medical congress was launched by CME; the main focus of the congress was to spread the knowledge and education regarding the elderly portion of the community and focused on how to take care of them. Also in the year 1999 a division of United Business Media called CMP Media acquired CME, hence CME carried on expanding consistently and also started providing the education to a number of medical practitioners in the mode of teleconferences, live meetings, online courses and PDA resources. The efforts were continued by the Congress related towards the issues of Ageing in 2006. Apart from ageing the subject matter was broaden, and it included the issues regarding pediatrics, men's and women's health and adolescent's health.

Up till today CME stands with the same motives and grounds set by it when its foundations were laid in 1978, and the motive was to provide the healthcare practitioners with high quality, top standard learning with the help of distinct faculty. And some of the reasons why healthcare practitioners go for CME are certification board requirements, organization membership requirements, hospital credentialing, or personal growth and affirmation.