Professional Profile

Verifying the professional credentials of doctors and other health care workers is a critical process in ensuring that consumers receive high quality health care. Yet often the organizations that collect and maintain credentials data have difficulty exchanging this data.

The Healthcare Professional Profile provides a standard XML format for profile data on healthcare professionals, making it easier to exchange and compile profile data across organizations. This in turn allows for faster credentialing of professionals and faster availability of accurate data to the public.

Standardizing the format of professional profile data has many benefits:

  • Faster and more accurate updating of credentials data.
  • Faster delivery of credentials data to regulatory bodies, healthcare institutions, and the public.
  • Easier compilation and integration of data from primary sources.
  • Faster development of information systems for credentials data.

Because data is accurate and easy to exchange, it’s easier for regulatory bodies and health care institutions to catch fraudulent practitioners and recognize those claiming the highest levels of qualifications.

The Healthcare Professional Profile provides a common format for the following types of data:

  1. Identifiers
  2. Name
  3. Address
  4. Education
  5. Training
  6. Certification
  7. Licensure
  8. Disciplinary actions
  9. Academic appointments
  10. Occupation
  11. Personal information
  12. Professional memberships

The Healthcare Professional Profile was developed by the MedBiquitous Professional Profile Working Group.  Draft web services for automating data exchange are available. Visit the Professional Profile Working Group page for more information.