[Past roles and future prospects of the National Clinical Database for board-certifying systems of the Japan Surgical Society].

Board-certifying systems play an important role as guideposts in postgraduate training courses to develop superior surgeons with both general and subspecialty surgery competence. The board-certified surgeon designation of the Japan Surgical Society (JSS) as the first guidepost has provided the foundations for board-certified surgeon systems of subspecialty surgical societies as the second guidepost. In April 2010, the National Clinical Database (NCD) was founded by the JSS and other societies. Data on surgery and treatment have been entered into the NCD from January 1, 2011, and more than 1 million cases were submitted to the NCD in that year. The NCD is an unprecedented, advanced activity. The data will be used for the authorization of board-certified surgeons of subspecialty surgical societies as well as that of the JSS. The data will be also used for benchmarking, and clinical research teams will cooperate with the NCD.