In 1969, the Medical School of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) received a grant from the National Center for Health Services Research and Development (Public Health Service, HEW) to plan and conduct--as a demonstration project--a special retraining program for physicians who had failed to approve the licensure examinations of the Puerto Rico Board of Medical Examiners. These physicians, graduates of foreign medical schools, were identified and subsequently given an opportunity to enroll in a six-month "Curso de Perfeccionamiento" which included supervised clinical practice along with lectures and seminars in the basic and clinical sciences. An important aspect of the Curso program from the beginning was evaluation. Aside from the more usual sorts of program and impact assessment, it was felt highly desirable to determine in some way the quality of practice engaged in after licensure. If this were done, then not only could the presumed long-range effects of the Curso be investigated, but also the general "quality of medical care" in Puerto Rico could eventually be at least partially assessed. This document reports on the initial steps taken in that direction, namely the establishment of meaningful performance criteria which would define an acceptable level of medical care provided in Puerto Rico and elsewhere. (Author/DEP)