Abstract
Profiling is a technique that large, multispecialty group practices, like many insurers, can use to monitor and improve quality and efficiency. Groups can examine physician performance by calculating ratios of medical inputs to patient or population outputs. Physician control can help to achieve balance between clinical benefits and economic considerations. Profiles need to reflect a group's multiple missions, such as clinical care, research, and education; philosophy of care; and organizational ethos regarding physician compensation systems. Groups may need to customize standard approaches because of their emphasis on early utilization of specialists and the atypical case mixes often found in referral practices.