Continuing education, continuing professional development, and high-value continuing professional development exist along a continuum. Continuing education (CE) often is associated with didactic learning methods, such as lectures and seminars, which take place in auditoriums and classrooms, and is often viewed by health professionals as merely a path to maintaining licensure and certification through the accumulation of credits. Continuing professional development (CPD), in contrast, embraces a wider array of learning formats and methods that are driven by learners.

The Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education hosted a workshop in April 2017 to explore the value proposition for CPD. Forum members and workshop participants gathered to learn about innovative CPD programs around the world, to consider the perspectives of those who invest in CPD, and to discuss the business case for CPD. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.