In article <[log in to unmask]>, Ahmad Risk
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>I wonder why all of a sudden we find Exchange in bed with X.400 for
>NHSnet (allegedly).  I wonder who started the wooing.  And,  more
>importantly:  why??  >-;>
>
>Ahmad

Not following you Ahmad.

X400 is an international standard which has an existence totally
independent from NHSnet.  What is interesting is that MSE allegedly
enables us to emulate both X400 RUA and / or X400 MTA.  Its ability to
do this has absolutely nothing to do with Bill Gates jumping into bed
with Ray Rogers.

The reason why this is of interest is that in the short term we need a
reliable way to exchange structured clinical messages.  As you know, the
NHS standard is EDIFACT.  EDIFACT messages have to be treated as binary
(8bit).  Anyone who has tried sending binary files as attachments (MIME
or uuencode) to large numbers of people will know that there are often
problems, depending on links between networks, maximum size of files,
how MIME has been implemented at each end etc.  X400 to X400 allegedly
gets around this as it handles 8bit binary without needing to do any
special tricks.

So MSE just might provide us with a widely available (?relatively cheap)
alternative source of X400 capability....

Yes, yes - I know we can argue till the cows come home whether all of
this will / should be possible with SMTP.  Or we can reject the lot and
wait for cable technology / WWW etc to sweep everything aside.  But I am
trying to find a pragmatic 'reasonable value for money' solution that
works NOW, and which will allow us to insert the necessary safety and
privacy features..

So for SHORT TO MEDIUM TERM to get GP - hospital clinical EDIFACT links
running reliably I suspect we do need to use X400.

But we (GPs) don't need to subscribe to NHSnet to do this....

I think we need to clarify the debate by considering EDI and 'Internet
services' (eg WWW and email) as two quite separate issues.

EDI clinical links could be done with X400, encryption / authentication,
and a suitable message handling service WITHOUT needing to subscribe to
the NHSnet.  Hence the interest in MSE...

For WWW and email we are spoilt for choice - Internet service providers
or NHSnet?


--
John Williams, Senior User GP / Provider Links Project
Email: [log in to unmask]
Fax:   01483 440928


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