The Christian Medical College did not have any system of medical records until 1925, it was then, that a system of record keeping was introduced for inpatients. In 1930, some personnel were trained as record clerks. Dr A.I Kinnear, the then medical superintendent standardized medical forms. Dr John Carman, the then director took personal interest and appointed Mrs S. Carman as advisor to the department. She effected many improvements. She felt the need of having a trained medical record librarian. In 1955, the Rockfeller Foundation made a grant of Rs.33,000 to the department and agreed to award a fellowship for a person to be trained in the United States of America (USA). 

Mr D. Daniel Gajaraj underwent training at the Grant Hospital School for Medical Record Librarians, Chicago, USA. He returned in 1956 and assumed charge of the record section as Medical Record Officer(MRO). In 1957, the inpatient records division was re-organized and centralized. In 1960, the system for recording inpatient admissions was re-organized, and a system unique in this region was introduced for outpatient care.

Between the years 1958 to 1962, many officials of the government of India, the Rockfeller Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development and other agencies visited the Medical Records Department and urged the hospital administration to start training programme in medical records. At this instance, the government of India, Ministry of Health, conducted two medical record orientation programme in 1961 and 1962 for the medical superintendents, deans, and hospital administrators of teaching hospitals in India. 

In 1962, the Central government urged the State government teaching hospitals to send candidates to Vellore for training in the Medical Records Department. The first batch of medical record officers and technician trainees was received on 1 August, 1962. Mr D. Reuben, the then supervisor in the medical record department was sponsored by the institution for the Medical Record Officer’s course in the first batch along with the candidates of the State government hospitals.

In 1967, Mr Reuben assumed charge of the Medical Record Department (MRD) as Medical Record Officer. During the ensuing nine years, 47 medical record o and 17 medical record technicians were trained. At that time Christian Medical College and Hospital (C.M.C.H) was the only institution in the South-East Asia region to offer organized medical record training programme.

At present, from 2011, the department is offering a three-year, Bachelor in Medical Record Science course, affiliated to Dr. M.G.R Medical University, Chennai.   The Department also conducts one-year training programme for medical record technicians (MRT). 

The MRD is one of the biggest in the country not only in terms of its size but also the scope of work undertaken in facing the challenge as well.   In 2010, we started the process of digitization of the outpatient and inpatient records, paving the way for the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, currently in use. 

We are committed to provide quality patient record services to all authorized persons and to provide prompt record services to all authorized departments for the care of all outpatients and inpatients.