Now, doctors to get credit points for webinars

NAGPUR: Practicing doctors will now get credit points for attending webinars. As the government has given directions not to hold physical conferences, workshop, or meetings to reduce mass gatherings to avoid spread of Covid-19, Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) has decided not to grant credit points to physical conferences anymore. Instead, credit points will be allotted to webinars which will be held online to update medical knowledge of medical practitioners registered with MMC.
“MMC has finally approved to grant credit points for these webinars. The said webinar must be conducted by registered organizations, associations, medical colleges and teaching institutes,” said Dr Vinky Rughwani, vice-president of MMC, who is from Nagpur.
The application for accreditation needs to be sent to MMC 15 days prior to the date of webinar. Screenshots of the webinar will have to be sent to MMC. One credit point will be given to a medical practitioner for half-day webinar and two credit points will be given for a full-day webinar.
“All registered medical practitioners have to renew their registration every 5 years from MMC. At the time of registration renewal, they need 30 credit points, which they collect by attending conferences, workshops and seminars. Now, as physical conferences are not possible these webinars will help them for renewal of their registration by providing credit points,” added Dr Rughwani.
Earlier too, MMC has taken several decisions to help medical practitioners in state. Doctors who are serving Covid-19 patients in isolation wards, Covid hospitals, or in fever clinics across the state have been allotted up to 10 credit points. Process of registration and its renewal was made simpler and completely online to ensure more health manpower in state during pandemic. Online CMEs were allotted since January and doctors were allowed to earn up to 6 credit points from the online CMEs. Now, credit points have been allotted to webinars directly.
Importance of credit points for practicing doctors
· Doctors have to collect 30 credit points in five years of their registration period
- Generally, they get credit points by attending Continuous Medical Education (CME) held across the years by medical associations
· Those who fail to collect 30 credit points are not eligible to renew their professional registration for next five years
· As physical seminars, CMEs are not possible in Covid-19 period, MMC has decided to allot credit points to online webinars now
· MMC has already given several relaxations and additional credit points to Covid warrior doctors