PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Linda Hargrave
AU  - Allen Hutchinson
AU  - Alan Cavill
AU  - Leonard A. Goldstone
AU  - Helen Watson
TI  - Computerized family practitioner committee records — a data base for general practitioners
DP  - 1988 Jan 01
TA  - The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
PG  - 22--23
VI  - 38
IP  - 306
4099  - http://bjgp.org/content/38/306/22.short
4100  - http://bjgp.org/content/38/306/22.full
SO  - J R Coll Gen Pract1988 Jan 01; 38
AB  - In the primary care environment the role of preventive medicine is assuming increasing importance and general practitioners need accurate and up-to-date information about their practice population. Computerization of family practitioner committee registers should provide a readily accessible data base from which data about groups of patients within the practice area can easily be extracted. This paper describes a study carried out in Northumberland, which set out to establish the type of information which would be of interest to general practitioners and how it could be produced. It was found that a data base holding only registration data was of limited value to general practitioners, although useful for identifying target groups for screening programmes and showing demographic trends within the practice. The doctors felt that the inclusion of medical data would make the register a far more effective resource.