Computing technology has made rapid strides in the last decade. There seems to be no respite from the continuing advancement of this technology, which from time to time has left many of us wonder struck. 

The medical field globally has been somewhat slow in adapting to the full benefits of computerization. This has resulted in our dependence on others to guide and help us not only to get a grasp of the subject but also to help us in taking important decisions to put this technology to our best use. Very often, the so called "Computer Pundits" themselves haven't the faintest clue of our field and are often found groping in the dark. Many a times the situation has not been any different from "the blind leading the blind". These situations have left a lot of loopholes and gaps in the overall development of medical computing and informatics. Many medical institutions in the West have spent millions of dollars, only to later realize that the software developed are unsuitable for their use. A similar scenario of haphazard development of medical application of computers is now unfolding in our country.

In the last few years "Internet" has made communication cheap, reliable and easy. Numerous medical web-sites keep sprouting up everyday. It is now possible to attend one of the Internet Grand-Rounds at hospitals in USA or England. Telemedicine has arrived in India and a few private institutions have used it to hype their image and reach out to patients in catchments areas with an idea only to improve the bed capacity of their hospitals. Government organizations have tried to get the balance right but have not succeeded. This apart we still have a long way to go top make telemedicine more popular. The IT act in India does not cover health and we still need appropriate legislations in India before it can be practiced freely. This method of consultation is going to entirely change the way doctors practice medicine. The system may well be suited for a country like India where the majority population living in the villages have no or very poor quality access to healthcare services. 

Today, there seems to be a perceptible lack of a common platform of doctors from various specialties who can discuss something they have in common. This obviously is due to rapid advancement in different fields of medicine and specialization. Application of Computers in medicine has a common thread as it interests and fascinates most of us. Hence it was felt that a new society should be floated and common goals chalked out. The society had its inception in 1997 and first started as a net based society. We had almost 600 e-members participating in various kinds of discussion from 1997 to 1999. 
Since then various meetings have taken place and national level conferences with theme related to ‘IT in healthcare’ have taken place in various part of the country. 

At some stage we lost our domain name mcsindia.org and with its our website contents!!. Hence for sometime no website of the society was in place. We have now revived it with this new domain name. 

Who Started this Society

A bunch of doctors who wished to promote the concept of using computer to advance patient care started this society. Dr. Sunil Shroff from Chennai spearheaded the initial efforts. Others who have helped have included Dr.MG Bhat from Bangalore, Dr.Selvakumar from Chennai, Dr.C.G.Raghu from Kochi, Dr.Balasubramaniam from Bangalore, Dr. S. Ramesh Babu from Chennai and Mr. Mr. Ranjan Dwivedi from Delhi

Proposed Category of Membership

a. Individual
b. Corporate
c. Institution

Proposed Organisational Structure of the Society

The original  proposal of the structure of the society is as follows:

Chairman or President

·         Vice-President x 2

·         Treasurer

·         Chief Editor-Newsletter / Journal

·         Directors for various Groups.
Each Director will have a Secretary and seven Council Members to help him or her with the task.

1.       Medical Education Development Group

2.       Hardware Technical Advisory Group to Medical Profession

3.       Software Advisory Group to Medical Profession

4.       Telemedicine Group

5.       Patient Support Group -
i. for Medicine
ii. for Surgery

6.       Medical Computing Society Membership Enhancement Group

7.       Public Relation Development Group:
i. for NGOs
ii. for Government Organisations

8.       Think Tank for future development of the society and to keep track of the society's direction

9.       Membership "Dispute and Legal Cell" for formation of a democratic constitution & platform

10.   Indian Medical Database Collating Group
( Database of  Indian Doctors,  Pharmaceuticals, Nurses, Hospitals, Medical & Dental Colleges etc. )

Please note: Not all wings of the society are currently functional. But at some stage in future we do hope that the above structure will be in place.

Membership Benefits –

1. 15% to 20% discount (depending on Venue etc) on all conferences of the society. 

2.  Invitation to participate in the scientific discussions during conferences as participant, discussant or as a Chairperson.

2. Invitation to participate in common discussion forum (mcsi@yahoogroups.com) is open to all members.

3.  Discounted copy of Journal when started