Medical Certification of Death: Development and Feasibility of Deployment of an Online Course for Practicing Doctors

Authors

  • Kavya Rangaswamy *Assistant Professor,Division of Epidemiology and Population Health, StJohn's Research Institute, St John's National Academy of Health sciences
  • Rajeev Kamadod *Assistant Professor,Division of Epidemiology and Population Health, StJohn's Research Institute, St John's National Academy of Health sciences
  • Prem Mony K *Assistant Professor,Division of Epidemiology and Population Health, StJohn's Research Institute, St John's National Academy of Health sciences

Keywords:

Medical Certification of Death, online learning for doctors, cause-of-death certification, MCCD

Abstract

Introduction: Medical Certification of Cause of Death, a vital tool for country’s cause-specific mortality data, is an important responsibility of all medical practitioners. Despite its criticality, training on accurate certification and coding of cause-of-death is not routinely offered to all medical practitioners in the country very early in their careers. While MCCD training is vital, a face-to-face, classroom-based (traditional) training faces varied hurdles. A low-cost course on certification of cause-of-death that is easily accessible and available to country-wide medical practitioners would majorly benefit by enhancing their knowledge on death certification procedures. Method: We designed and hosted an 8-hour online course on certification of cause-of-death to strengthen the capacity of medical practitioners in death certification and ICD 10-coding. About 209 doctors from across the country have taken the course over the last six months. Result: Increasingly, medical practitioners are open to online learning. Accredited, knowledge-based online courses are an excellent tool for Continuing Professional Development of medical practitioners.

References

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Published

2018-05-16

How to Cite

Rangaswamy, K., Kamadod, R., & K, P. M. (2018). Medical Certification of Death: Development and Feasibility of Deployment of an Online Course for Practicing Doctors. National Journal of Integrated Research in Medicine, 9(2), 86–93. Retrieved from http://nicpd.ac.in/ojs-/index.php/njirm/article/view/2322

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Original Articles