Cost effectiveness of continuing professional development in health care: a critical review of the evidence

The literature on the effectiveness of CPD continues to expand, but effectiveness is not a sufficient criterion for implementation. For scarce resources to be devoted to CPD, the relative cost effectiveness of different educational interventions must be established, and those offering the most value for money must be implemented. An investment in high quality evaluations would therefore reap health benefits for the public and ease policy makers' decisions about resource allocation.