The scope of this CEN report is to specify a method for the development of European Standard message specifications for the electronic exchange of structured character-based information, between autonomous computer systems within and between organisations, for purposes related to healthcare. Such message standards are essential if healthcare services are to obtain the benefits of open systems and avoid the constraints of proprietary interfaces. The method specifics the activities of the message development process and the structure and the components of the resulting deliverables.
The scope of this report does not include method specifications for the development of other subject areas covered by working groups of CEN/TC 251, EWOS EG-MED and WEEB/MD9.
The scope covers the development process of standardised messages, starting from the user requirements up to the delivery of message specifications using EDIFACT and ASN.1, the two international syntax standards selected in view of CR 1350:1993, but the report does not exclude other syntaxes (e.g. SGML) from being used for the syntax specific message specifications.
The scope of the Report is limited to the specification of standardised messages, therefore it does not include in its scope areas such as conformance testing of messaging applications, the implementation method for messaging standards, the maintenance of the messaging standards. It does not include in its scope issues relating to data secrecy and data protection. It does not specify methods for establishing directories of coding schemes, for data sets or for messages. It does not include specifications related to the messaging standards approval process.
The method defined by this CEN Report supports and is validated for the development of message specifications for the electronic exchange of structured character-based information in healthcare, but it does not by its nature exclude the method to be used in a wider domain (i.e. other types of information or other domains).
