PMIP (Pathology Messaging Implementation Project)

PMIP (Pathology Messaging Implementation Project) is the electronic cryptographic standard used by the British National Health Service (NHS) to transmit pathology orders and pathology test results.

PMIP began in the United Kingdom as the PMEP (Pathology Messaging Enabling Project) under the control of the British Medical Association. PMIP was designed for the transmission of structured pathology orders and their associated results between pathology and primary care systems. Messages are encapsulated in EDIFACT rather than XML as this work had already been done.

Originally messages were to be encrypted end-to-end (organisation-to-organisation) using public key infrastructure (PKI). The NHS subsequently overlooked renewal of licence for this and had to hurriedly instigate an alternative strategy using Data Transfer Service (DTS). Messages are encrypted from the pathology laboratory to the DTS server, and again from the DTS server to the General Practitioner using the PMIP interim messaging crytographic service. The DTS provides application-to-application messaging within the NHS as well as providing a replacement for the X.400 service. It also provides easier development capability for the system suppliers at each end site.

All pathology tests and profiles are coded with Read Codes which had initially been developed by a General Practitioner, James Read, to describe all aspects of healthcare for his own use. These codes were subsequently adopted by the NHS. A subset, known as the Bounded Code List (BCL), was developed specifically for this project. Read Codes have been subsumed into Clinical Terms (CT), which is an enhancement of the American SNOMED (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine) classification scheme.