title: Assuring the continuing competence of health care professionals in the public interest. Citizen Advocacy Center.
abstract: A citizens' advocacy group expresses its concerns over the current state of procedures in place to protect the public from health care practitioners who may no longer be competent, despite their level of knowledge and skill when initially licensed. The growing concern over continued competency, the inadequacy of mandatory continuing education courses to address this need, and some promising initiatives, including one by the American Association of Dental Examiners are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Citizen Advocacy Center, Washington, DC 20036, USA.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Swankin
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D003256:Community Participation; D003254:Consumer Advocacy; D003255:Consumer Organizations; D003813:Dentistry / Q000592:standards; D003815:Dentists; D004498:Education, Dental, Continuing; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D008005:Licensure, Dental; D008007:Licensure, Medical; D010820:Physicians; D011050:Policy Making; D011640:Public Policy; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012941:Social Responsibility; D012953:Societies, Dental; D014481:United States