DataFlow’s Medical Screening Program is becoming the standard check across Asia and the Middle East for conducting background checks on prospective medical staff. Already used to screen thousands of doctors, nurses and pharmacists, our program has assisted many medical groups meet the requirements of accreditation with the likes of the Joint Commission International Accreditation (JCIS) and other certifying agencies. We currently provide these services to:

• The majority of the medical regulators in the Middle East
• Over 50% of the major hospital chains operating in the region
• Law firms litigating medical malpractice law suits

A well implemented Primary Source Verification programme prevents medical professionals with falsified educational qualifications or employment histories from gaining employment or a license to practice. A background check is a mandatory requirement for many regulators but international checks have often been poorly implemented or omitted due to the perceived difficulties of conducting these checks. Sending a letter and hoping for a response is no longer an option as the problem of fake credentials is growing.

Due to a shortage of qualified health professionals in many countries, employers have increasingly looked to foreign talent to fill vacancies. As these medical staff depart their country of origin, a growing number of unqualified locals fill the positions left vacant using certificates obtained from unaccredited or bogus institutes. They leverage on the fact that the medical regulators in developing countries are often poorly equipped or funded to conduct the required checks on staff applying for licenses.

This is the wave of applicants that is now applying for overseas jobs - genuine work experience but no real qualifications. In the first six months of 2009 we identified over 900 license applicants to one Middle Eastern country using fake educational qualifications or falsified employment records.

Our specialized primary source verification process minimizes the risk of the applicant using either forged documents, or more commonly, certificates and employment letters from bogus or ‘shell’ entities that only exist on paper for the purposes of supporting such fake applicants. This process, developed in conjunction with our government clients, is the most exhaustive in the market.

DataFlow has also developed a global Medical Malpractice database by aggregating enforcement information from medical regulators around the world.

A DataFlow Medical screening consists of the following components, with additional checks also being conducted

• Education verification from Primary Source
• Validation of education providers' accreditation
• Medical license verification
• Validation of professional license bodies' authority
• Employment Verification
• Cross Check against proprietary database of hundreds of bogus medical employers
• Verification of Employer's legal existence
• Proprietary database screen of over 1,00,000 medical staff who have been banned or censured by medical authorities worldwide for malpractice or other unethical or illegal activity.

We have conducted tens of thousands of checks in over 150 countries and territories and, due to our global network developed over more than a decade of work in the background screening industry, can assure our clients of the fastest turnaround time in the industry.