The King's Fund Institute was invited by the Acheson Committee to conduct a survey of community physicians in English health authorities. This report first gives an outline of the history of the specialty of community medicine. The methodology of the survey is then described, followed by a presentation of the results: patterns of employment and models of organisation in community medicine are described; a profile is presented of the general characteristics, qualifications and lines of accountability of community physicians; and an analysis is given of the priorities and beliefs which individual community physicians attach to the tasks which the job entails.