Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH): A unique role in the evolution of Australian general practice

Understanding what we do every day as general practitioners (GPs) through a detailed and measureable approach has been, and will continue to be, crucial to strengthening our profession. I have been working with general practice information and available data sources for over 20 years and have always appreciated the ongoing role of Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH) as one of my principal sources of validation. Preparing applications for many research grants, justifying policy changes, introducing curricula reforms, assembling general practice workforce planning and training applications, debating primary care coding and satisfying my interest in understanding our discipline better have all benefited richly from accessing the BEACH dataAustralian Family Physician, Vol. 45, No. 12, Dec 2016: 922-923..