The difficulties in constructing a common denominator for peer review in general practice.

A helpful analysis of clinical events in general practice would be to show a doctor how his opinion compares with the use of the same opinion by other doctors. For such a comparison a common denominator, which is a measure of clinical opportunity, is required. The population of patients cared for by a doctor can be used for this purpose and this paper describes a method which uses a computer to calculate the share of a known practice population that each doctor has cared for. The computer produces details of consultations, set out in square tables, of those registered with each doctor and those seen by each doctor.