The two-day national level “MEDRECON 2017,” the 17th Annual National Medical Records Conference, started today in Nani Auditorium, Mani Higher Secondary School in the city.

The conference focusses on the digitisation of medical records in hospitals, which will go a long way in creating complete paperless health services for patients.

As per WHO (World Health Organisation) norms, International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) has been applied to patient records. The medical records professionals code all diagnoses, symptoms and procedures recorded in conjunction with hospital care; it is useful for physicians and other healthcare providers for further analysis leading to better quality care.

The main objective of the conference is technical know-how, knowledge sharing, safeguarding health information and its legal aspects, and establishing a network of medical records professionals and all other professionals.

The personnel who deal with records of patients like physicians, health information professionals, other healthcare providers and aspiring students are participating in this conference.

The conference is being hosted by G. Kuppusamy Naidu Memorial Hospital (GKNM). S. Lakshmi, Deputy Commissioner Law and Order, Coimbatore participated as the chief guest.

Dr. Ragupathy Velusamy, Chief Executive Officer of GKNM Hospital, in his welcome address said, “GKNM Hospital is the first in Tamil Nadu to digitise its vast medical records. It has completed the transition of 8.5 lakh out-patients and more than 60,000 in-patient to digital patient records in the hospital information system.”

“Digitisation is a memory chip which will secure the complete health information of the patient chronologically making the hospital experience very enriching for the patients. Even the investigation reports and radiology images can be viewed in the picture archival system (PAS) which can be accessed in any system of the hospital,” T. Daniel, Digital Medical Record Officer, GKNM Hospital.