The Karnataka State Pharmacy Council (KSPC) has now opted for micro chip embedded certificates and UV-enabled identity cards for its 54,000 registered pharmacists and fresh registrations. This is to stall duplication of certificates and misuse of the ID cards.

In order to prove the identity and verify the credentials of a registered or fresh registration candidate in a secure manner, we embarked on the micro chip embedded and UV-enabled technology. This gives no room to fake and we are confident that the submissions made during registration are authentic, Gangadhar V Yavagal, president, KSPC told Pharmabiz.

“We are the first state pharmacy council in the country to take up this innovative and practical solution to stop fraud. It is both cost-effective and secure ensuring uninterrupted workflow,” he added.

The Council has done it by enabling a tiny, unique and digitally signed micro chip embedded into the paper or certificate. The high quality of the paper prevents tearing or damaging it. The authenticity of the certificate can be verified by any one across the globe by simply tapping a Near Filed Communication (NFC) and Data Enabled Smart Phone on the certificate. The mobile will fetch the details of the certificate from the data base of the KSPC. It instantly displays all the credentials of the certificate holder like the name of the candidate, his photo, issuer details and other information as mentioned in the document.

The registered pharmacists ID cards are printed with a retransfer printer having UV enabled features. It helps to immediately verify the authenticity of the pharmacist's personal identification.

“The need of the hour is the seamlessly access to foolproof our registration records of pharmacists. The move is also in sync with the Union government’s Digital India. Efforts are on to move to provide biometric cards to the registered pharmacists to provide a professional identity and monitor the presence at the drug retail outlets,” said the KSPC president.

Currently, the council is gearing up to make the pharmacists register their certificates online at a nominal fee of Rs. 200. These cover both renewal and fresh registrations. The service which commenced on January 2017 recorded 200 registrations. All that the candidates need to do is to upload their documents and despatch the same to council office for verification. Once the candidates receive the microchip embedded certificates, their next renewal would be instant, he said.

With these initiatives, going forward, the KSPC registered pharmacists will have a professional identity and their authenticity will be valued, noted Yavagal.

The Pharmacy Practice Regulations (PPR) 2015 mandates under rule 4.2 that pharmacists need to attend two refresher courses of a minimum one-day duration each in a span of 5 years organised by a state pharmacy council. The council is in the process of communicating with around 32 pharmacy colleges across six zones in Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Kalaburagi, Belagavi, Hubballi and Dharwad.