The cooperative information project: Part 2: some initial clinical, quality assurance, and practice management studies.

Many of the obstacles inherent in the conduct of primary care research have been overcome by an experimental program in northern New England, the Primary Care Cooperative Information Project. This project uses a medical information network in 44 rural medical practices to carry out both clinical and management research. This paper describes the developmental problems encountered and the results of some initial clinical, quality assurance, and practice management studies conducted by the network and presents observations on its future research directions.