Among all the other changes in the Health Service there has been a revolution in the way that continuing medical education is provided. There is a much greater awareness of the principles of adult education and more willingness to apply these in medicine and to experiment with new ideas. One of the fundamental principles of adult education is that individuals have preferred methods of learning and therefore it is important to provide a variety of means to keep up to date. The interactive problem based CD-ROM format is now an established part of this repertoire and it is very pleasing to see that the British Society of Gastroenterology has sponsored such a CD with a promise of more in the future.

There are two features to consider with the CD-ROM format: the quality of the interface and the educational content. A high quality interface between the learner and the program enables the learner to focus on the task in hand and not spend time and energy making the program work. A high quality educational content enables rapid learning of relevant material that will help the learner to deliver better quality care. How does this CD perform against these criteria?

Without reading the instructions it was not difficult to load the program and get started with the first clinical problem. My DVD loaded the CD in less time (about 90 seconds) than the …