The themes that emerge from a review of the literature on continuing education (CE) in the health professions fail either to describe the CE phenomenon adequately or to explain the disappointing results reported from CE evaluation studies. This represents a simplistic and incomplete view of CE and the effects of CE experiences. The major objective of this project was to develop a conceptual framework for the planning and evaluation of CE in the health professions that was based on a more complete understanding of the components of CE and an open systems view for describing outcome data. The initial step of this process was the critical analysis of the complex concept of CE using Guttman's facet theory and mapping sentence technique. This was followed by the integration of the conceptual definition of CE with a system view of human behavior based on the work of Brunswik. The model presented might be useful in the planning of CE experiences to insure that potential anticipated outcomes are realistic for the type (category) of program developed. In addition, using the model to design CE impact evaluation studies can help identify a range of questions to ask and thereby suggest to the evaluator appropriate data collection strategies. Finally, it might be useful to apply the model to the analysis of impact data collected as a way to bring to light information that can explain the mismatch between potential and actual program outcomes that is often reported in the literature. (KC)