The Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) has introduced five security features in its redesigned medical passing certificates to curb the use of fake ones. The security measures include Individual QR codes, embossed logo, holograms, hidden (bleed) lines and watermarks.
This step has been taken in connection with the controversial fake certificate scam associated with Maharashtra based college of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS). Earlier, 105 doctors from the CPS, Parel, were found guilty of submitting fake post-graduation certificates since 2016. MMC had uncovered the fake certificate racket when they started verification of the documents submitted by doctors for registration.
Most fake degrees were of courses such as Diploma in Gynecology and Obstetrics, Diploma in Ophthalmic medicine, general surgery and cardiology.
“So far, we used to give simple print-outs of certificates with the registration number of the doctors. The certificates didn’t have any unique security measures. During the investigations of the accused doctors, we found out that owing to the modest design of the certificates, it became easier for fraudsters to make copies. Thus, we had to redesign it with all the security features to help curb cases of forgery,” said Dr Shivkumar Utture, president of the council.
Before starting with the process, MMC synchronised the data of registered doctors with individual QR codes. This would help them find the profiles of doctors within minutes through their centralised data system. The certificates would also have several hidden lines in orange, below the signature of the registrar, making it difficult to replicate the same.

Source: Medical Dialogues, Hindustan Times

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