PD 6542:1994

This standard PD 6542:1994 Investigation of syntaxes for existing interchange formats to be used in healthcare is classified in these ICS categories:

• 35.240.80 IT applications in health care technology

1.1.1. Original Scope

In the terms of reference for PT 004 the scope of the investigation was the whole of the health care area. The number of suggested evaluation criteria was large. In the .recommended strategy for the project team it is stated "The interchange formats need to be evaluated against a set of properties. The properties will be selected both from health care and technical requirements including efficiency, richness, complexity, ambiguity, flexibility, cost and practicality".

1.1.2. Reduced Scope

Due to resource constrains, PT 004 has reduced the scope of its work. This-has been done in three ways:

1. The domain of health care is reduced to two examples from the laboratory communication domain and the internal medicine domain. This selection is explained in chapter 4.
2. The number and type of evaluation criteria were reduced compared to the suggested properties in the terms of reference. Selection of the evaluation criteria was done based on the established method for message development. A more detailed explanation is given in chapter 5.
3. The number of EFs were reduced from a possible 23 down to 5. The selected formats were ASN.1, ASTM E1238, EDDFACT, EUCUDES and ODA. This selection is explained in chapter 6.