EDIFACT Pathology Messaging Standard
Defines the content, structure and management of electronic pathology reports between laboratories and General Practice.
About this standard
- Publisher
- NHS England
- Reference code
- ISB 1557
- Publication date
- 07/11/2023
- Status
- Retired
Show definitions of statuses
Active. Active standards are stable, maintained and have been approved, assured or endorsed for use by qualified bodies.
Deprecated Deprecated standards are available for use and are maintained, but are being phased out, so new functionality will not be added.
Retired standards Retired standards are not being maintained or supported and should not be used.
- Standard type
- Information standards
Show definitions of standard types
Collections. A Collection is a systematic gathering of a specified selection of data or information for a particular stated purpose from existing records held within health and care systems and electronic devices.
Extractions. An extraction is a type of collection that is pulled from an operational system by the data controller and transmitted to the receiver without additional processing or transcription by the sender.
Information standards. Information standards are agreed ways of doing something, written down as a set of precise criteria so they can be used as rules, guidelines, or definitions.
Technical Standards and specifications. Technical standards and specifications specify how to make information available technically including how the data is structured and transported.
- Contact point
Link to standard
- Documentation
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- Applies to
- Healthcare IT systems
- Associated medias
Topics and care settings
- Topic
- Interoperability
- Messaging
- Tests and diagnostics
- Care setting
- GP / Primary care
- Hospital
Dependencies and related standards
- Dependencies
- Related standards
- Bowel Cancer Screening - EDIFACT
- Cervical Screening - EDIFACT
- Pathology Messaging - EDIFACT
- Read Clinical Terms Version 2 ISB 1553: (Now retired.)
- Read Clinical Terms Version 3 ISB 1552: (Now retired.)
- Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Reporting Information Standard DAPB4101: Developed to replace the EDIFACT Pathology Messaging Standard.
Review Information
- Business Lead
- Gogs Byrn, Senior Terminology Implementation Specialist, NHS England
More information
Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport (EDIFACT) is an international EDI standard for the exchange of messages that was adopted by organisations wishing to trade globally.
EDIFACT is fundamentally limited because it is:
- unable to carry SNOMED CT encoded test result concepts – it can only support Read v2 Pathology Bounded Code List (PBCL) codes. Read v2 was retired in April 2016 and it is no longer possible to create new national Read codes.
- unable to support complex report structures containing fully atomic, coded results – data elements are mainly represented as text.
The continued use of Pathology Messaging Implementation Project (PMIP) EDIFACT is a significant barrier to new market entrants who struggle to implement a messaging technology that is over 30 years old, and not aligned with modern standards such as Health Level 7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (HL7 FHIR).
Formal retirement of EDIFACT will take place on 31 March 2024 with a target retirement date of 31 March 2025.
Page last updated: 14 May 2024