A longitudinal study has been conducted on 1960 graduates of a stratified sample of 28 medical schools to provide information on physician characteristics as they relate to career decisions. This 1976 followup study, with a response rate of 73 percent, provides information on the practices of 1,850 respondents. Of approximately 900 items of information collected during the interval, 49 variables were identified for close scrutiny, after a series of data reduction measures. These remaining variables were categorized as belonging to one of six classes of information: (1) general background factors; (2) personal qualities or attitudes as measured during medical school; (3) achievement measures, obtained at the same time; (4) characteristics of premedical college attended; (5) characteristics of medical school attended; and (6) personal factors at the time of graduation from medical school that might operate as constraints on future choices. (SW)