The system also allows performing Regional Professionals Search

The new register of the Bulgarian Medical Association (BMA), which allows any citizen to obtain information about a specific physician, was presented to the Healthcare Commission in the National Assembly last Thursday.
The database with public access will allow patients to see where a doctor works, the doctor’s specialty, to get his/her contact information, and to see the location of his/her workplace on the map. The system also enables to perform Regional Professionals Search.

Dr. Julian Yordanov from the BMA said that the register was part of an overall system that turned the BMA into a Medical Chamber with basic functions such as continuing medical education and professional development, which were set out in the European directives.
Each physician will be able to monitor what is posted on his/her profile and when there are inaccuracies, they can be edited. The BMA stated that the information in the register was maintained and updated by the administration of regional collegia, so doctors should turn to them for changes in their status.

Through the system the BMA Accreditation Council will monitor the credits acquired by a doctor participating in conferences and seminars. The database in turn is linked with the European Professional Card for doctors allowing the free movement of physicians in the EU. It has required elements and a chip. So, when a doctor goes to an EU country, he/she will be easily recognized, which would free him/her from the inconvenience to carry a pile of papers along. The BMA registers can be entered directly through the new document. The Accreditation Council has to establish rules for good medical practice by specialty. They will be defending the physicians and if it comes to appeal, they will serve as a criterion whether the doctor has done his/her job well.

It is foreseen that in future the functions of the registers will increase. One of the functions will be the data availability to be used when entering into contracts with the Health Insurance Fund. “Doctors will be able to issue membership certificates. Currently in the months of January and February there formed huge queues at the collegia to issue such certificates. In the future they will be able to print them and they will have a unique code, to be assigned to the NHIF.

Technically this is ready, but there are some problems. One of them is that the Fund has to recognize the legitimacy of these certificates,” explained experts from the BMA.