NEW DELHI: A quiet change is taking place in the way India’s medical colleges are evaluated. The National Medical Council (NMC) now wants to validate its clinical work through a digital system, rather than relying primarily on exam visits and paperwork.In a recent communication, the regulator asked all medical colleges to submit details of the Healthcare Facility Register (HFR) ID of their hospitals within seven days. Universities have also been asked to share the status of their hospital software systems – whether they are integrated with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) platform and the National Health Department’s PM-JAY portal.Officials said the move is part of a gradual shift toward more objective, evidence-based assessments. Clinical workload – the number of patients treated, admissions processed and procedures performed – is one of the most important parameters used by the NMC while granting annual renewal, sanctioning new courses or allowing addition of MBBS and postgraduate seats.“Medical colleges have realized that clinical workload is a core regulatory requirement. What we are doing now is using IT tools to verify it more objectively,” a senior official said.Each hospital has a unique Healthcare Facility Registration (HFR) ID. By collecting these IDs and checking their link status with the national digital health portal, regulators will be able to cross-validate clinical data with existing platforms.Most of the teaching hospitals are tertiary care centers that are already connected to the PM-JAY portal as they perform procedures under the government medical scheme. Officials clarified that this was not an attempt to force new connections to be established immediately, but rather to collect verified details so that the commission could monitor the data more systematically.Until now, verification has relied mainly on self-declarations by schools and regular physical examinations. The NMC is currently moving towards digitally verifiable parameters to strengthen supervision.The committee also clarified that this step will not directly affect patients. The digital platforms mentioned are already playing a role in government programmes. Current work is administrative in nature and focused on improving regulatory assessments.With a deadline of seven days to submit details, the message from the regulator is clear: future assessments of medical schools will increasingly be based on data that can be inspected online, rather than just inspection reports.
