Division of Vital Records

The Division of Vital Records (DVR) serves as the official repository of all vital records in Virginia and is responsible for the registration, collection, preservation, amendment and certification of vital records. DVR houses more than 7 million vital records including births, deaths, spontaneous fetal deaths, induced termination of pregnancy, marriages and divorces and annulments. The statistical data collected on these vital records is used by the Virginia Center for Health Statistics to generate annual reports and special reports that address health-related issues.

DVR E-Learning for Physicians
The death certificate is the source for state and national mortality statistics. It is used to determine which medical conditions receive research and development funding, to set public health goals and to measure health status at local, state, national and international levels. With the assistance of Office of Information Management (OIM), DVR is currently developing an online tutorial for physicians. This tutorial will assist physicians in the accurate completion of the medical certification (cause of death) on death certificates.

Web-enabled Electronic Birth Certificate (EBC)
In October 2005 DVR will deploy WEB-EBC. This Web-based application will replace the current application used by hospitals to record and report births to DVR. This method will be more secure, user friendly, have greater access time, generate more reports and provide a means to collect more accurate data. The medical and health information on the birth certificate can be used to study the conditions or establish programs associated with infant death.