A national study of medical and surgical specialties. II. Description of the survey instrument.

The survey instrument used in the national study of physician activities conducted by the University of Southern California, Division of Research in Medical Education, is a log-diary in which physicians kept a record of their actual professional activities. The log-diary focused on use of physician time and patient encounters and employed numerical coding of activities and patient encounters in a highly structured format. Compared with instruments used in similar studies, this log-diary appears to gather a greater breadth and depth of information about physician practice patterns.