The American Medical Association (AMA) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) maintain a database of information on graduate medical education (GME) training programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and of the residents and fellows in them. Every spring this database of residents is updated by adding to it the approximately 19 000 new residents who match into programs through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) as well as from information collected through the AAMC's follow-up report of medical schools. The AMA and the AAMC also jointly administer the annual National GME Census through GME Track, an Internet-based AAMC product. From May 2008 until December 2008 all directors of programs accredited by the ACGME were asked to complete the Census on GME Track. Information about the training programs supplied by the program directors is uploaded to FREIDA Online, an Internet-based public information source on GME programs that is available to medical students and residents. In July 2008 we surveyed program directors about their active, transferred, and graduated residents and fellows for academic year 2008-2009. Program directors were provided with lists of residents and fellows from the current database and were asked to confirm or modify the training status of trainees who were present in their programs the prior year; add new physicians to their program whom we did not already have in our database; and confirm, edit, or add demographic information. This demographic information includes sex, date and country of birth, citizenship status, and race/ethnicity.