A performance-based method of assessing the professional behaviors of individual practitioners. A typical profile may include data about a practioner’s patients, their known illnesses, their drug therapies, their immunization history, hospitalization rate, use of other services, and the cost of specific aspects of their care. The profile of an individual practitioner’s performance could provide information such as the number of his or her patients who are screened for cancer or diabetes mellitus, or the number of patients treated for a particular condition who survive. The profile could be used to further a practitioner’s education, to influence future care patterns, to certify or recertify health care providers, or to assist decisions about the hiring, retention, or dismissal of professionals who provide health care services. The outcome of establishing practice profiles could help to increase the quality of medical care and to provide patients the opportunity of evaluating physicians. The methods used to profile practice are constantly evolving.