Eight written modules, plus a bonus module of demonstration templates · ten quizzes · about three hours · Rs. 2,999
Before the Needle: Acupuncture, Cupping and the Law in Maharashtra
What the law in Maharashtra, as we read it, says before the first needle: what registration gives you, what you may call yourself, consent and referral, your clinic on paper, what you say in public, and what to do when something goes wrong.
In short
Who it is for. Acupuncture practitioners registered or registering with the Maharashtra acupuncture council, and their assistants; doctors and other practitioners who add acupuncture, acupressure or cupping; cupping practitioners; and therapy-centre owners.
What you learn. The law in Maharashtra, in the order a practice meets it: which box your therapy sits in and what you may call yourself, consent and referral before the first needle, your clinic on paper, what you say in public, and what to do when something goes wrong. It teaches the law. It does not teach clinical technique.
What you get. Five modules, each with a quiz, a final assessment (a self-check, not a qualification), and a template pack of demonstration templates for learning. One payment of Rs. 2,999, paid once, with twelve months of access from the day you enrol.
Module one and its quiz open without payment and without a card. The course is general education about the law, not advice on your own practice.
For acupuncture practitioners who are registered, or registering, with the Maharashtra acupuncture council, and their assistants; for doctors and other practitioners who add acupuncture, acupressure or cupping to their work; for cupping practitioners; and for owners of therapy centres. It is about the law in Maharashtra. The course takes the law in the order a practice meets it: which box your therapy sits in, and what registration does and does not give you; what a patient should be told and what you record before the first needle; needles, sharps, premises, records and patient data; what you say on a board, a page or a post; and the first hour, the complaint and indemnity when something goes wrong. Every module says where the law we read is not settled, and lists the law read for it. The course teaches the law. It does not teach clinical technique: no points, depths or protocols. It is general education, not advice on your own practice, and it does not review your documents or decide your own case. The examples are built around real-life situations; names are illustrative. The sheets and templates are demonstration templates for learning.
Prepared and taught by Dr. Rupal V. Rana, MBBS, DCH, LLB, LLM, Medicolegal Consultant and Founder, DoctorLawyer™, in consultation with a High Court advocate.
8written modules
10scored quizzes
45applied questions
10demonstration templates
2.8hours in total
12months of access
Module one freePrintable handout with every moduleCertificate of completion, see a sample
Rs. 2,999
One payment, no subscription and no renewal. Twelve months of access to all eight modules, every quiz, the final quiz and the certificate. A change of price never applies to a course you have already paid for.
Read module one first, freeNo card, nothing charged
Read module one before you buy
Not ready to decide? Module one and its quiz open without payment, so you can see the writing, the depth and the way the questions work first. No card, nothing charged, and nothing charged later unless you choose to buy.
What you will be able to do when you have finished
Not what you will have heard about. What you will be able to do, on a Tuesday, with the thing in your hand.
Identify, as we read it, which of the three boxes your therapy sits in, and which law reads your board, card and page.
Work out which titles and letters a patient may read as a medical qualification, and what to display instead.
Explain what a patient should be told before treatment, and why a signed consent record is good evidence rather than a statutory duty we have found.
Apply “stop, refer and record” when you notice something outside your training.
Put written questions to a supplier of needles or machines, and set up a premises file and a records and privacy sheet for your own clinic.
Test a claim, review or testimonial against the Consumer Protection Act definition and the 2022 guidelines, as we read them, before you publish.
Follow the first-hour sequence when something goes wrong, write a same-day record, and handle a first letter or notice.
Use the demonstration templates as a starting point to adapt with your own adviser, without letting a form say something untrue.
How much of your time this takes
About three hours in total, and none of it has to be done in one sitting. The course remembers where you are, on whichever device you open it on, one device at a time.
Eight modules, 9,098 words
about 51 minutes
The sheets that close each module, 1,455 words
about 7 minutes
Ten quizzes, 45 questions, with the reason explained on every answer
about 75 minutes
The applied scenarios and the law read for each module
about 11 minutes
The bonus module: 10 demonstration templates for learning, with a short lesson on using them
about 26 minutes
Everything, 19,678 words
about 2 hours 50 minutes
The law taught is the law as it applies in Maharashtra, as we read it. Every module says where the law is not settled. It teaches the law, not clinical technique.
How the course runsStart to certificate
1
Eight written modules. About eleven minutes each, read in any order, at your own pace, on a phone or a laptop. Every legal proposition carries the case, section or regulation it rests on, so you can check it. Each module also leaves you a document you can use: Module 1: Your box, in ten questions. Module 2: Before the first needle, a pre-treatment checklist, and what the consent form should record. Module 3: a premises file, and a records and privacy sheet. Module 4: Before you publish, eleven questions, and words to avoid and words to use. Module 5: The first hour, a card for the wall, and an adverse event record. The template pack adds consent templates for needling, cupping and moxibustion, a home visit addendum, a pre-treatment screening and referral record, a session record, a photograph consent, a pre-publication check and a premises file checklist.
2
A scored quiz at the end of each module. Five applied questions, not definitions: a situation, and what you would do. Four out of five to pass. Retake it as often as you like, and the authority is explained on every answer, right and wrong. Your best score is the one kept.
3
A final quiz across all eight modules. It opens once you have passed all eight module quizzes. Sixteen questions, two drawn from each module, twelve out of sixteen to pass. Your sixteen are not the same as anybody else’s. Retake it as often as you need.
4
A certificate of completion, issued once the eight module quizzes and the final quiz are all passed. It is signed by Dr. Rupal V. Rana, MBBS, DCH, LLB, LLM, and carries a number anyone you show it to can check on this site. It is a certificate of completion: not a diploma, not a certification, not recognised by any Medical Council, the National Medical Commission, any university or any Bar body, and it carries no continuing medical education credit.
The modules
01Which box are you in?You will be able to identify, as we read it, which of the three boxes your therapy sits in, and which law reads your board, card and page; explain, as we read the extract of the Maharashtra Acupuncture Act, what registration gives a practitioner and what we did not find in it; recognise that, on our reading, the Act's definition does not name microneedling, skin treatments, injections or most machines, and that registration gives no authority for them that we found.Open first
02Titles, letters and the line you may crossYou will be able to work out, on our reading of the 2003 order and section 27, which titles and letters a patient may read as a medical qualification, and what to display instead; describe the direction of risk towards "practising medicine" under the 1961 Act, noting that its application to acupuncture has not been decided in anything we have found; explain why the cases cited are taught only as direction of risk or, in Mamta Rani, as a bail order and not a finding of guilt; check your own board, card and page against the five-question sheet.11 min
03Consent: what you tell the patient, and what you recordYou will be able to explain, as we read Samira Kohli (a case about a doctor), what a patient should be told before treatment and why a court may look for the same idea of consent from a therapist; distinguish consent to a procedure from consent to a visit, and say why a one-line form is thin evidence; describe why a signed consent record is good evidence rather than a statutory duty we have found; use the headings sheet to check what your own consent record covers.11 min
04Screening, referral, medicines and home visitsYou will be able to apply "stop, refer and record" when you notice something outside your training; give the safe one-breath answer when a patient asks whether he can stop his tablets; describe good practice for home visits, noting that none of it comes from a statute we found; say when to take advice first about a minor or an adult who cannot decide.11 min
05Needles, sharps and premisesYou will be able to put the five written questions to a supplier of a needle or machine, and keep a stock register by batch; explain, as we read rule 10 of the 2016 waste rules, why used needles are treated as biomedical waste, and what to confirm with the State Pollution Control Board; say why this lesson states no current shops threshold and who to ask, and complete a premises file for your own clinic.11 min
06Records, patient data and photographsYou will be able to describe, as we read the 2011 information technology rules, why patient information and photographs are sensitive and what a small clinic can do about staff phones; set up patient records and a retention approach as good practice, noting that we found no retention period for acupuncture records; explain why a photograph of a patient needs its own written consent, and complete a records and privacy sheet for your own clinic.11 min
07What you say in public: claims, cures, awards and testimonialsYou will be able to explain, using the Consumer Protection Act definition quoted in the lesson, when an advertisement is misleading and what section 89 punishes; test a review or endorsement against clauses 13(1) and 14 of the 2022 guidelines, as we read them, and recognise why naming a disease and promising a cure invites trouble; check titles, awards and numbers on a page against the evidence behind them before publishing; describe what a patient's written consent for a picture or story should say, and run your page through the eleven questions.11 min
08When something goes wrong: the first hour, the complaint, and indemnityYou will be able to follow the first-hour sequence when something goes wrong: stop, make safe, get help, and do not send the patient home while an injury or doubt is unresolved; write a same-day factual record and correct it only by a dated addendum; describe, as we read them, the three routes a patient may take: the consumer commission, the police, and the council; handle a first letter or notice, and put written questions to an insurer about indemnity cover, noting that we found no statute requiring it.11 min
BUsing the demonstration templates Bonus, freeYou will be able to explain what the ten demonstration templates are for, and what they leave to you and your own adviser; adapt a template so that every line on it is true of your practice and of the patient in front of you; choose the right template for the moment, and say which module explains the law behind it.Free bonus · 20 min
About the bonus module
The template pack is included in the price and costs nothing extra. It holds ten demonstration templates for learning: consent for needling, cupping and moxibustion, a home visit addendum, screening and referral, a session record, an adverse event record, a photograph consent, a pre-publication check and a premises file checklist. They are for you to adapt with your own advisers. They do not make a practice safe or settled by themselves. It sits outside the eight: it is not in the final quiz and it is not needed for the certificate.
The small printEducation, not advice on your matter. Not clinical teaching. No outcome promised.
This is education, not advice on your matter. Nothing in the primer is advice about any particular patient, complaint, notice or case, and reading it does not create a relationship of adviser and client.
It is not clinical teaching. No module tells you how to treat anybody.
Nothing is promised as an outcome. No course prevents a complaint, and none of this guarantees how any forum will decide anything.
Where a matter needs a lawyer, we say so. Representation before any forum, and any formal legal opinion, is arranged separately with a High Court advocate and is charged separately.
The material is licensed to you alone. It may not be recorded, copied, shared, resold or circulated. Pages carry the name and email of the person they were issued to.
