In this issue of Blood, we are pleased. to introduce a new Continuing Medical Education (CME) feature, appearing monthly. For many years ASH has provided CME credits for the annual meeting and other educational meetings sponsored by the society. In surveying society members, more CME activities has been a frequent request. To this end, the Society and Blood explored offering CME credits for selected clinical studies published in the journal. Two approaches were considered. Blood could develop and support its own CME division, and although this option would have the advantage of complete independence, the administrative burden and expense was prohibitive, as all readers involved in CME administration and oversight at their institutions are well aware. Some medical journals that have chosen this option charge readers directly for CME credits, which we did not feel was in the spirit of a society-owned journal. The second option was to partner with an existing CME organization. These organizations have considerable expertise in the complex rules covering CME, and the experience needed to produce high-quality and useful educational materials. These 2 points seem straightforward but are actually extremely involved. The regulations governing physician CME vary by state and are rapidly becoming ever more stringent. Equally, as anyone who has written review questions can attest, developing clear questions that emphasize the major teaching points is not easy. It requires considerable experience and training to produce unambiguous questions and answers, and neither authors of clinical papers in Blood nor our editors are likely to be able to produce valid questions.
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