New Intel, AMA system to check up on Internet doctors.

Intel Corp. is touting its new online verification system for doctors as a way to welcome the next wave of Internet health care applications. The system, developed with the American Medical Association, can help verify that Web users who dispense medical advice are indeed doctors. That check is crucial as doctors turn to the Internet to share lab results and diagnose patients. Intel unveiled the project Tuesday at a daylong conference on Internet health care. The system is expected to be in place early next year. Engineers designed the system to verify doctors_ credentials and prevent pranksters from impersonating a physician. The system will also be able to verify patients_ identities to protect sensitive medical records."Today, there_s no effective way for online services to know Dr. Jones is in fact Dr.Jones," said Charles E. Saunders, medical director for Healtheon, a Web health company that signed up for the new services. Alan Greene, a pediatrician who runs the Web site (drgreene.com), said he has heard of a few pranks. A visitor to an online chat room once gave a cancer patient advice on alternative treatment options, only to say afterward that the exchange was a joke.The system verifies only an individual_s identity, not the site_s content. Richard Corlin, speaker of the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association, acknowledged that a separate system must be developed to sort out good and bad medical information.The number of online medical impostors is believed to be small, but the potential for fraud increases as more patients turn to Web sites, chat rooms and e-mail. And risks grow with newer services that can access private records.The Intel system will require doctors using a participating Web site to register for a digital certificate, akin to an online health card. Intel computers will check the registration information against the AMA_s database of 900,000 doctors. Patients ultimately will have to register as well to get private records.The level of verification required will depend on the sensitivity of the online material.