Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Reporting Information Standard
Supports the interoperable sharing of pathology reports from laboratories to Primary Care for the purpose of direct care.
About this standard
- Publisher
- NHS England
- Reference code
- DAPB4101 Amd 63/2023
- Publication date
- 15/04/2024
- Publication version
- 1.0.0
- Status
- Active
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
- Suppliers of Pathology Laboratory Information Management systems
- Suppliers of Pathology middleware and Order comms
- Suppliers of GP systems
- Suppliers of secondary care Electronic Patient Records
- Suppliers of Trust Integration engines
- Impacts on
- Implementation of this information standard impacts all health IT systems suppliers providing systems to the above providers; suppliers should work with their customers to determine necessary changes.
- Associated medias
- Conformance date
- 30/04/2025
- Effective from
- 15/04/2024
Topics and care settings
- Topic
- Interoperability
- Tests and diagnostics
- Care setting
- GP / Primary care
- Hospital
Dependencies and related standards
- Related standards
- SNOMED CT SCCI0034
- EDIFACT Pathology Messaging Standard ISB 1557
- Clinical Risk Management: its Application in the Manufacture of Health IT Systems DCB0129
- Clinical Risk Management: its Application in the Deployment and Use of Health IT Systems DCB0160
- Health Level 7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources The interoperability standard identified to facilitate the exchange of all healthcare information across the NHS.
- Pathology Messaging – FHIR An integration for exchanging pathology test results from laboratories to GP practices.
- Pathology Messaging – EDIFACT The legacy integration for exchanging pathology test results from laboratories to GP practices.
- NHS Number ISB 0149
- Organisation Data Service API For obtaining ODS codes and organisation information.
- SNOMED CT
Review Information
- Scope
- Health Services, NHS Services
- Sponsor
John Quinn, Chief Information Officer, NHS England
- Senior Responsible Officer
Ian Townend, Chief Architect, NHS England
- Business Lead
- Gogs Byrn, Senior Implementation Specialist, NHS England
- Approval date
- 05/04/2024
- Post Implementation review Date
- 30/04/2026
Legal basis and endorsements
- Legal authority
Section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012
This standard is published under section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
More information
For twenty years, Pathology Messaging (PMIP) EDIFACT, governed by the ISB 1557 EDIFACT Pathology Messaging Standard (Amd 39/2003 EDIFACT v1.003) has provided a reliable mechanism for supporting the data flow from laboratory information management systems (LIMS) to general practice. However, PMIP 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.
- it is unable to support complex report structures containing fully atomic, coded results – data elements are mainly represented as text.
- the continued use of PMIP EDIFACT is a significant barrier to new market entrants who struggle to implement a messaging technology that is over 20 years old, and not aligned with modern standards such as Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR).
This has led to the need to introduce this new standard.
Page last updated: 15 May 2024