Background: The Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH) program, a continuous national study of general practice clinical activity, is now in its 18th year. In March 2015 the database included details of almost 1.7 million encounters from 16,639 participants, representing about 10,300 individual general practitioners (GPs).
Objectives: This paper summarises the BEACH methods, the uses to which the data supplied by participating GPs are put and the many publications resulting from the program, with an indication of how these can be accessed by readers.
Discussion: BEACH is the only continuous nationally representative study of general practice in the world that provides direct linkage of GP management actions to the problem being managed. This paper provides the reference point for the coming series of more specific articles associated with the theme of each edition of Australian Family Physician.