Medical Council sets about digitising doctors' records

Officers from the council will be able to access doctors' records at the click of a button. Representational Image

The Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) has taken up the huge task of digitising the records of as many as 11 lakh doctors, starting from the 1960s, for preservation.

With its completion, all the documents of registered doctors - educational qualifications - across the state will be available to the MMC at the click of a button; and will help it to handle medical negligence or malpractice cases. With the completion of the job, MMC will become the first medical council in India to digitise all these documents.

Since the start of the council in the 1960s, most of the records of doctors are on paper. These are preserved in a godown in their office branch in Mulund. But in complaints regarding quacks or medical negligence on basis of false medical certification, the officers from the council have to fetch the papers from the godown, which is extremely time consuming and hectic. This further delays the investigation. Taking this into account, the MMC has started scanning all the records of registered doctors across the state. So far, 7 lakh documents have been scanned for preservation.

"We often get complaints about doctors who have completed their medical education in the 1970s and 80s. In such cases, it becomes problematic for us to find the reports from the godown at Mulund. Often the papers rot, which affects our investigation into such matters. So we decided to turn all these records into digital form through scanning. This will make them available at the click of a button on a desktop," said Dr Shivkumar Utture, president of the council.

Around 4 lakh documents are yet to be scanned, and this could be completed by the end of September. "With this, we will become the first medical council of India to convert all medical documents (related to doctors) into digital. This will make the investigation faster and more transparent," he added.

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