REFLECTIONS Positioning continuing education: boundaries and intersections between the domains continuing education, knowledge translation, patient safety and quality improvement Simon Kitto • Mary Bell • Jennifer Peller • Joan Sargeant • Edward Etchells • Scott Reeves • Ivan Silver Received: 16 September 2011 / Accepted: 29 November 2011 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 Abstract Public and professional concern about health care quality, safety and efficiency is growing. Continuing education, knowledge translation, patient safety and quality improvement have made concerted efforts to address these issues. However, a coordinated and integrated effort across these domains is lacking. This article explores and discusses the similarities and differences amongst the four domains in relation to their missions, S. Kitto (&) CEPD, Wilson Centre and Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, 200 Elizabeth Street1ES- 565, Toronto, ON M5G 2C4, Canada e-mail: simon.kitto@utoronto.ca S. Kitto Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Canada S. Kitto Department of Surgery, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia M. Bell Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada J. Peller CEPD and Wilson Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada J. Sargeant Research and Evaluation, Continuing Medical Education Health and Medical Education Research, Division of Medical Evaluation, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada E. Etchells Department of Medicine, Center for Patient Safety, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada S. Reeves Center for Innovation in Interprofessional healthcare Education, University of California, San Francisco, USA S. Reeves Keenan Research Centre, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Canada 123 Adv in Health Sci Educ DOI 10.1007/s10459-011-9340-1