本文档定义了在医疗保健中使用数字证书的基本概念，并提供了一个互操作性要求方案，以建立支持数字证书的健康信息安全通信。它还确定了传播健康相关信息的主要利益相关者，以及可能需要数字证书的健康传播所需的主要安全服务。 本文档简要介绍了公钥加密技术以及在医疗保健中部署数字证书所需的基本组件。 它还介绍了不同类型的数字证书——用于依赖方的身份证书和相关属性证书、自签名证书颁发机构（CA）证书，以及CA层次结构和桥接结构。

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.