Distance education and technology.

This first in a series of columns regarding distance education identifies existing offerings and introduces conceptual issues. Continuing professional education can be achieved through a variety of means, but university-based distance education degree programs offer particularly valuable attributes. Although a growing number of universities are offering such programs, few pertain specifically to infection control, hospital epidemiology, and health-service quality improvement. This first installment concludes by asking whether the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America should be partnering or otherwise collaborating with universities to maintain its leadership position in bringing high-quality educational opportunities to infection control practitioners and healthcare epidemiologists.