ABSTRACT
The ‘research magnificent’ may have come of age, but it is unlikely to reach maturity without incorporating Sir James Mackenzie’s thesis that ‘the opportunities for the general practitioner are essential for the investigation of disease and the progress of medicine’. By contrast, in Britain the introduction of the National Health Service made it possible to utilize the records of general practitioners as a means of obtaining data. By extending the definition of medical concern to incorporate general practitioners, however, it becomes theoretically possible to have the physician screen mental illness in the community and, in the process, to provide an estimate of conspicuous morbidity. The participants were instructed in the use of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and of the International Classification of Health Problems in Primary Care, an adaptation of the ICD for primary-care physicians.
