The trend for general practitioners to work together in group practices and health centres, the emergence of the health team in general practice, the mobility of the population, the complexity of medical care, and the increase in chronic disease make it desirable to develop a system to identify and locate patients quickly and accurately. Furthermore, the general practitioner, as the clinician responsible for the continuing care of a registered list of patients many of whom are first-degree

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... ives, is ideally placed to undertake further research into genetic, epidemiological, and clinical problems. However, the existing records and registers are not sufficiently accurate, accessible or convenient. The inflation of the registered population over the actual population varies with time and place.