More Physicians Obtain CME By Attending Meetings According to Medical Meeting's Eighth Annual Survey of Physician Preferences in CME (January/February 2001 issue), more physicians obtain CME by attending meetings than by any other means. In the survey period September 1999 to September 2000, physicians earned 50.8 hours of Category 1 credit of which 38% were earned by attending meetings that required travel and 27% required no travel. The balance of hours were earned by reading journals (18%), using CD-ROM or the Internet (6%) and in other ways, chiefly audio-and videotapes (10%). Pharma Spending More Money Than Ever On Meetings And Events A newly released report by Scott-Levin shows that much of the growth in the number of industry-sponsored meetings and events (280,000 in 1999, up from 70,000 in 1993) is recent (25% growth between 1998 and 1999). Forty-five percent of these events were "dine n' dash" dinner meetings held in a restaurant and 18% were hotel based meetings. Physicians were slightly more likely to accept invitations to non-CME (51%) than CME (44%) events.