The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) has issued official documents using blockchain technology.
The organization issued sample verifications of undergraduate and graduate medical education credentials as part of a pilot of Learning Machine blockchain records issuing system. In the recent past, MIT and University of Melbourne have issued academic credentials using Learning Machine’s technology.
"Verification of medical education and related credentials is a critically important endeavor, and we are hopeful that the continued success of this pilot may provide the level of certainty needed to implement blockchain technologies in the medical licensing and credentialing process,” said Michael Dugan, Chief Information Officer at the FSMB.
Traditionally, verification of medical education has relied upon the maintenance of physician profiles by credential verification organizations such as the FSMB. A blockchain-based system enables physicians and other practitioners to maintain their own private profiles of medical competency, which they can share as they see fit.
According to the official release, the ownership of official qualifications is enabled through the blockchain certificates open standard (Blockcerts). As a result of this standard, professionals can hold and share their records using a credential wallet, a free mobile app.
Blockcerts, developed by Learning Machine with the MIT Media Lab in 2016, is available for iOS and Android. It serves as a user-owned portfolio to which no vendor or issuing institution has access. It seamlessly manages the user's public and private blockchain addresses so that the process of owning one's digital assets is radically simplified.
The Blockcerts standard also offers vendor and issuer independence – the recipient would continue to own their records and share and verify them in perpetuity even if any issuing institution or platform vendor issuing Blockcerts cease to operate.
