The British Medical Association (BMA) is the trade union and professional body that represents doctors in the UK, advocating for their rights and well-being. It plays a key role in collective bargaining, negotiating pay, improving working conditions, and shaping healthcare policy. In addition to this, the BMA provides a wide range of services to support doctors, including career development, legal assistance, and resources for professional growth. It also works to promote doctors’ health and well-being, offering support for mental and physical health challenges. By publishing journals, conducting surveys, and gathering data, the BMA keeps doctors informed about the latest trends in the medical profession and healthcare. Through these efforts, the BMA is committed to advancing the interests of doctors while ensuring high standards in the healthcare system.
The British Medical Association (BMA) encountered significant operational hurdles in managing its committee election processes. Traditionally handled through manual procedures, the nomination management and ballot creation workflows were not only time-consuming but also prone to human error. As the scale and complexity of elections grew, so did the strain on internal resources.
A key priority for the BMA was ensuring the confidentiality, fairness, and auditability of its elections-essential elements for maintaining trust among members. However, the manual nature of the process made it difficult to enforce these principles consistently and transparently.
Further complicating matters were the intricate rules governing different elections, such as tie-break procedures and multi-round voting systems. These required precise interpretation and implementation to avoid disputes and uphold procedural integrity.
Another layer of complexity arose from the need to integrate with external systems like OpenSTV, which the BMA relied on for rule-based vote counting and result generation. Without seamless digital connectivity, managing data flows and ensuring timely, accurate results became increasingly challenging.
In summary, the BMA needed a robust, scalable, and automated solution that could streamline operations, reduce administrative burden, and reinforce the legitimacy of its election processes.
To address the complex and evolving demands of its election processes, the British Medical Association partnered with PearlArc to implement ONE (Online Nomination and Elections) – a secure, cloud-based application tailored specifically to the BMA’s requirements.
ONE was designed to transform BMA’s election management into a fully digital, efficient, and transparent experience, streamlining every step from nomination to result publication.
- Core Features:
- Comprehensive Election Management: Enables creation, scheduling, and customization of multiple elections across committees and roles.
- Digital Nomination Workflow: Facilitates seamless candidate submissions and the automated publishing of election schedules.
- Secure, Real-Time Voting: Ensures confidentiality while providing administrators and candidates with real-time status tracking.
- Granular Admin Controls: Provides election administrators with advanced capabilities to manage nominations, verify voter identities, and publish results.
- Tie-Break and Re-Election Support: Built-in logic to handle tie-break rules and re-run elections in compliance with organizational policies.
- Technical Implementation:
- Framework & Architecture: Built using ASP.Net MVC and C#, with modern front-end technologies including HTML5, CSS3, AngularJS, and jQuery.
- Data Layer: Powered by Entity Framework 6.0 and hosted on MS Azure SQL, ensuring scalable, secure data management.
- System Integration: Seamlessly connected with OpenSTV, enabling automated vote counting based on complex electoral rules and enhancing result accuracy.
Through the deployment of ONE, the BMA was able to modernize its election processes—reducing administrative burden, improving accuracy, and reinforcing confidence among its members.
The ONE application boosted the efficiency of BMA elections by 50%, ensuring full compliance with voting regulations while delivering secure and transparent processes. This empowered the BMA to manage elections smoothly and with greater ease, enhancing overall operational effectiveness.
- Enhanced Security and Confidentiality
- Significant Reduction in Administrative Workload
- Improved Scalability and Auditability
- Flexibility in Complex Election Scenarios
