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The present paper briefly describes a growing trend in continuing professional development (CPD) for medical practitioners, examines some recent published contributions related to professionalism in medicine and describes the theoretical platform of a CPD framework based on medical professionalism that has been developed for use in a variety of medical specialties. The work arises from a project funded by The Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing and conducted by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists on behalf of the Committee of Presidents of Medical Colleges. Overall, the aim of the project was to design and develop a framework that can be considered 'best practice' in the field of medical specialist CPD, and which could be applicable to a wide variety of medical specialties and practice environments. The project was informed by available literature in areas such as the ways in which medical practitioners learn and the effectiveness of CPD, as well as consultations with a variety of stakeholders in the health-care field, including medical boards, medical defence organisations, health complaints organisations, specialist medical colleges and practising specialists. Overwhelmingly, the primary purpose of specialists participating in ongoing CPD was, according to the project consultations conducted, the maintenance, development and improvement of skills that enable consumers of healthcare to be confident of the level of care that they receive. Coupled with the need to recognise CPD as contributing to the wider context of professional practice, the resulting framework is underpinned by a theoretical platform based on the concept of medical professionalism. It is this theoretical platform, which articulates the nature of and responsibilities associated with the practice of specialist medicine, that enables a CPD framework to be constructed that can accommodate a wide range of specialist disciplines and practice settings, while also framing ongoing education expectations from the viewpoint of a range of stakeholders, rather than a single perspective; that of practitioners themselves.