The Cabinet Office IT Unit (Citu) could be heading for a
confrontation with the National Health Service Information
Authority (NHSIA)over networking standards and data
integration.
Government IT chiefs want XML to be the standard for developing
data integration across the whole public sector. But, the NHSIA
said XML is "unco-ordinated" and not ready for use in key parts of
the health service, particularly pathology messaging. Instead it
will rely on 25-year-old electronic data interchange (EDI)
technology.
Each year NHS labs send 35 million pathology reports to GPs.
Sending reports electronically, rather than on paper is seen as an
important step in the development of the troubled NHSnet
network.
The Cabinet Office's E-government Interoperability Framework
states, "Adherence to the framework standards and policies is
mandatory. There is a strategic decision to adopt XML and XSL
[Extensible Stylesheets Language] as the core standards for data
integration and presentation."
However, in a recent policy document, Pathology Messaging - to
XML or not to XML, the NHSIA said, "Edifact [EDI] has proved itself
invaluable in regulating electronic business. At present XML is
unco-ordinated and Edifact remains a more reliable methodology on
which the NHS can depend to transfer meaningful data."
The report's author, Rick Jones, director of clinical
biochemistry at the Leeds and Bradford NHS trusts and senior
pathology user on the GPnet programme board of the NHSIA, is
determined to start a debate with the Government about the way
forward.
He told Computer Weekly, "If we go down the XML route now
we would have to wait two years to get proper protocols. We can't
afford to wait."
Jones said the existing security standards for XML are
inadequate for healthcare. "There is a gap between what the
politicians and senior managers say they want and what the
professionals can deliver," he said.
A Citu spokesman said, "The Government is extremely clear on its
interoperability strategy and that is to use XML."
Privately, Citu officials are both surprised and dismayed by the
NHSIA position. They believe "any strategy for development needs to
be Internet-based and that means XML".