Education is an ongoing process for physicians, and acquiring state-of-the-art information is vital to the maintenance of excellent patient care. Physicians have numerous means of acquiring and meeting their educational objectives. Beginning with this issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology, there is now another readily available means of acquiring category 1 continuing medical education (CME) credits on a monthly basis.

The main objective of our journal is education. The ARCHIVES aims to inform its readers of progress, new developments, and pertinent research in areas related to the practice of ophthalmology through the monthly publication of original scientific contributions and observations. Beginning with this issue, we are pleased to announce the initiation of the Reader's Choice CME program. Physicians holding current, valid licenses in the United States, Canada, or Mexico, and who read any 3 of the selected articles in the current issue, are now eligible for 1 hour of category 1 credit toward the American Medical Association Physician Recognition Award. This CME service is provided free to readers of the ARCHIVES through the American Medical Association, which is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to sponsor CME for physicians. While physicians from other countries may also participate in this program, only those from the United States, Canada, or Mexico are eligible for the Physician Recognition Award.

Information and guidelines regarding this new program are published in this issue on pages 294-295, and will continue to appear monthly. Thus, in the span of 1 year, a reader may earn up to 12 category 1 CME credits by reading 3 of the selected articles each month, filling out the CME evaluation form, and sending or faxing the form to the indicated address or number listed in the CME evaluation form. To receive credit, readers must perform this function within 1 month of the publication date of the current issue of ARCHIVES.Verification of reading of the articles is on the honor system, though the reader is required to fill out an evaluation form rating the educational value of the selected articles and providing readability feedback directly to the ARCHIVES. This will help us to assess the educational needs of our readers on an ongoing basis.

The editor of the Archives of Ophthalmology, the associate editors, and the editorial board will select the articles that are eligible for CME credit. The articles will encompass a wide array of topics, involving both the clinical and laboratory sciences, along with the specialty areas of ophthalmic molecular genetics, epidemiology and biostatistics, socioeconomics of ophthalmology, ophthalmology in other countries, and clinicopathologic reports. In this issue there are 13 eligible articles. The title of each article is listed on the CME from, along with its educational objective.

I believe that this Reader's Choice CME program will provide a valuable asset for the readers of the Archives of Ophthalmology. All physicians are expected (or required) to accumulate annual CME credits, and this program allows readers of the ARCHIVES to determine their own educational needs and to do so in the comfort of their office or home. Category 1 CME credits may also be very useful and vital for ophthalmologists with time-limited American Board of Ophthalmology certificates, as well as for physicians in other areas of training. This program will also provide a valuable source of continuing feedback to the journal itself, helping to ensure that the Archives of Ophthalmology is providing reliable and timely information regarding progress, problems, and pertinent research in the field of ophthalmology. I look forward to receiving feedback from the readers of the Archives of Ophthalmology.

投稿截止日期1999年7月3日