BALTIMORE (AP) — The Maryland Board of Physicians is moving closer to requiring criminal background checks for medical license applicants.

State officials briefed the board Wednesday in Baltimore on the system that state and federal authorities would use check an applicant’s criminal record.

Chairman Dr. Devinder Singh said the board supports a plan to ask next year’s General Assembly for the authority to require background checks.

The proposal follows the revelation last spring that an Allegany County physician, William Dando, obtained a Maryland license in 1996 despite his imprisonment for raping a woman at gunpoint in Florida nine years earlier. Dando surrendered his Maryland license last month.

State officials say they expect to release a report by early November on the procedures that allowed Dando to be licensed.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.