An LIS to HIS Interface Using CCITT Standard Protocols

摘要

A recurrent issue in medical information exchange standards has been the relative merits of delimited message formats versus tagged message formats. In view of this ongoing discussion, we report here our experience in implementing a Laboratory Information System to Hospital Information System bidirectional interface using CCITT protocols X.25 and X.409. Use of vendor supplied X.25 software resulted in shorter and simpler application programs. Use of X.409 resulted in a 26% increase in message size compared to a delimited record format but provided greater flexibility in the transmission of encoded data. Use of standards will become even more attractive when commercial vendors make available X.409 software packages that match the quality of the current X.25 implementations.