Doctors Cannot Use Remote Authentication to Sign Lab Reports

In reply to a Right to Information (RTI) application, NMC stated that the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines 2020 do not cover the use of telemedicine for remotely operated invasive or surgical procedures. This clarifies the guidelines' application to remote authentication of RMPs for Pathology and Radiology lab reports.

Dr. Rohit Jain filed the RTI application in this regard, stating confusion among physicians over the need for physical presence to validate lab the results and the use of cloud-based software called Telepathology & Teleradiology to sign and authenticate lab reports.

In connection with this matter, in the public interest, Dr. Jain questioned NMC, "Does Telemedicine Practice guidelines 2020 allow a Registered Medical Practitioner to sign Pathology and Radiology lab reports via remote authentication without physical presence and supervision."

However, in response, NMC stated, "No. This guidelines do not address the use of telemedicine for remotely operated invasive or surgical procedures."

As technology has evolved, digital or scanned signatures have grown in popularity in diagnostic reports, especially those from laboratories. Although such technological developments are convenient for physicians, they also appear to be worrisome for patients due to the increasing trend towards lending and/or even signature stealing, wherein a competent physicians signs lab reports and then gives them to the patient without analyzing the test.

When the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) declared lending signatures to be "unethical" in 2018, it prevented a pathologist from doing so. More than 200 laboratories within the state were using the doctor's name and registration number, despite it was "physically impossible" for him to supervise them directly.

The initial Medical Council of India (MCI), that is now the National Medical Council (NMC), made it clear in 2019 that doctors' personal involvement was required for the verification of laboratory and radiology findings.

The practice of many specialists who remotely analyze laboratory data counting on technician judgments without conducting their own investigations was effectively put down by MCI's clarification.

This clarification was given by MCI in response to an RTI application that Dr. Rohit Jain filed in December 2019. "Now, people are taking the recourse of the Telemedicine guidelines saying that the Telemedicine guidelines permit," Dr. Jain told Medical Dialogues, pointing out that the norms had been established in May 2020.

Dr Jain said, adding that the RTI was filed in November 2024 and the RTI thereafter went to the Ethics Board of the NMC, which gave this decision.

"It reiterates the stand that the physical presence is very much necessary," added Dr. Jain.

(Input from various sources)

(Rehash/Dr. Puja Devi/MSM)