Tracking patient demographics and disease categories in a primary care residency

The residency training of primary care physicians must include experiences with multiple types of ambulatory patients and disease processes. Most residency programs, however, do not accurately monitor or quantify these experiences. We developed a simple computerized system, using a relational data base, to record and track patient demographics and disease categories. This system maintains a profile for each resident physician which is used to guide the assignment of future patients. The system can be simply modified to meet the specific patient and/or disease characteristics needed.