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This document defines the basic concepts underlying the use of digital certificates in healthcare and provides a scheme of interoperability requirements to establish a digital certificate-enabled secure communication of health information. It also identifies the major stakeholders who are communicating health-related information, as well as the main security services required for health communication where digital certificates can be required.

This document gives a brief introduction to public key cryptography and the basic components needed to deploy digital certificates in healthcare. It further introduces different types of digital certificates — identity certificates and associated attribute certificates for relying parties, self-signed certification authority (CA) certificates, and CA hierarchies and bridging structures.