This short report presents a summary of the results of the Community Health Information Classification and Coding (CHIC) project. The project, which covered the period from June 1989 to June 1990, had the objectives of identifying the Minimum Basic Data Set for ambulatory care in Europe, producing an extensible structure for the MBDS, conducting a survey of the acceptability of the MBDS, and developing specifications for supporting software. This report also outlines the results of the additional additional achievement of producing a coherent data set that summarises the patient's medical history.