Medical certification of deaths: Karnataka ranks 17th in country

Only 30.4 per cent of the deaths have been medically certified in the state in 2019, according to the data released by the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. This puts Karnataka in 17th position in terms of medical certification of deaths.

Out of 5.08 lakh registered deaths, only 1.54 lakh were medically certified in 2019. The National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (NCDIR), Bengaluru, which developed the e-mortality (eMor) software to accurately record deaths is being used only by two or three hospitals in Karnataka.

The eMor software uses the International Classification of Diseases-10 for classification of deaths. The data helps in better surveillance and quality death audits.

Dr Prashant Mathur, Director, NCDIR, told DH, “While Tamil Nadu has fully adopted the eMor software in all health facilities, which it started last year itself, in Karnataka two or three hospitals are using it, as part of our academic research. eMor was launched in 2017 and in Karnataka we are still awaiting its integration with eJanma portal.”

EjanMa is a web-based application implemented by the government back in 2014 for online registration of births and deaths.

Asked about the poor ranking of the state in medical certification of deaths, State Health Commissioner D Randeep said, “The number of registered units are less in the state. This could be the reason for low reporting. We will work towards having most facilities on board.”

Among the medically certified deaths, eight leading causes were identified and the top cause among them was disease of the circulatory system. This accounted for 29.7 per cent of the medically certified deaths in Karnataka. Most practitioners record the mode of dying as the cause of death which leads to incomplete and incorrect picture of cause of death statistics.

The nine leading cause groups for medically certified deaths in Karnataka are: Disease of the circulatory system (29.7 per cent); certain infectious and parasitic diseases (9 per cent); diseases of respiratory system (10.9 per cent); certain conditions originating in perinatal period (6.7 per cent); injury poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes (8.1 per cent), and neoplasms (7.9 per cent).

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