Continuing professional development

The GMC has a statutory role to promote high standards and co-ordinate all aspects of medical education. This includes doctors' continuing professional development.

Good Medical Practice requires doctors to keep their knowledge and skills up to date throughout their working life and to maintain and improve their performance. Continuing professional development (CPD) is a key way for doctors to meet these professional standards and is one of the sources of information required for appraisal and revalidation.

We published in 2004 guidance on continuing professional development which sets out the principles on which CPD should be based, and the roles of the relevant organisations involved in its delivery and quality assurance. We are now consulting on a revised version of this guidance (pdf).

We also provide reports and research material relevant to our role in CPD.

We do not endorse or accredit CPD. We do not give points/credits for CPD activities or events and we do not hold lists of CPD providers. If you are interested in this type of information, please contact the relevant Medical Royal College, faculty, specialist society, deanery, employer or the British Medical Association (BMA).

For information on revalidation, see the Revalidation section.