Trust-by-Design: Evaluating Issues and Perceptions within Clinical Passporting

TL;DR

This paper explores re-imagining healthcare professional credentialing through digital Self-Sovereign Identity, aiming to reduce administrative burdens and improve identity management throughout their careers.

Contribution

It develops user-led requirements and design principles for healthcare identity systems, contrasting them with existing literature to guide future implementations.

Findings

Healthcare professionals face significant administrative burdens.

Digital identity solutions can streamline credential management.

Professionalising identity management benefits healthcare workflows.

Abstract

A substantial administrative burden is placed on healthcare professionals as they manage and progress through their careers. Identity verification, pre-employment screening and appraisals: the bureaucracy associated with each of these processes takes precious time out of a healthcare professional's day. Time that could have been spent focused on patient care. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, it is more important than ever to optimize these professionals' time. This paper presents the synthesis of a design workshop held at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) and subsequent interviews with healthcare professionals. The main research question posed is whether these processes can be re-imagined using digital technologies, specifically Self-Sovereign Identity? A key contribution in the paper is the development of a set of user-led requirements and design principles for identity systems used within healthcare. These are then contrasted with the design principles found in the literature. The results of this study confirm the need and potential of professionalising identity and credential management throughout a healthcare professional's career.