The medical doctor qualification certificate project by the Japan medical association.

The development in information technology (IT) is rapidly advancing in Japan, and its impact is felt in the healthcare and welfare sectors as well. Efforts have been undertaken to enhance care practices by taking advantage of IT through sharing and analyzing healthcare information. However, the hasty introduction of IT has raised concerns with respect to security and privacy protection. Further, cases of identity fraud, where unscrupulous individuals pretend to be physicians, have become a social problem, raising concern regarding a basic credential system for medical practitioners. In response to these circumstances, the Japan Medical Association (JMA) has been continuously making efforts in developing a safe and secure environment for healthcare and welfare by striving to understand the “bright and dark sides” of IT, given its mandate as an organization that represents physicians in Japan. As part of our efforts, we offer the service of the JMA Certification Authority (JMA-CA). It is tasked with verifying the status of national medical license holders, which is the most basic foundation in this field. This service, which is interconnected with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s system, enables electronic verification of the license status of physicians (Slide 1). In addition, the JMA Electronic Certification Center (JMA-ECC) was launched in May 2013 as an affiliated internal organization to manage the JMA-CA. The JMA-ECC issues smart cards called Medical Doctor Qualification Certificate upon strict review of the license status and eligibility of physicians. The JMA-ECC also offers support services for the preparation of a safe and secure IT infrastructure for healthcare information using the Medical Doctor Qualification Certificate cards (Slide 2). There are two ways to use the smart card: one is in adding an electronic signature to a document; and the other is in authenticating one’s identity when logging in the network system (log-in authentication). As the name suggests, an electronic signature, or e-signature, enables the cardholder to sign an electronic document electronically. Adding an e-signature to a document in the healthcare network system helps prove the authorship of the signed document as well as the active license status of the author as a physician. If the content of an e-signed document has been altered, the electronic properties of the document will allow others to detect the changes. This function is The Medical Doctor Qualification Certificate Project by the Japan Medical Association*