Re: [Gnumed-devel] lab data fetcher/importer connection methods

[J Busser]

At 5:23 PM -0500 2/15/05, Horst Herb wrote:
> I believe there is only one entirely satisfactory solution:
> 1.) the path lab send results via S/MIME encrypted email
> 2.) the requesting doctor polls that mailbox, receives, decrypts and decodes
> the message. It's up to the recipient to delete the message from the mail
> server if and when indicated.
> 3.) the recipient can then send a standard email ACK (receipt)
>
> This is how it works between my path provider and me - simple, efficient, fool
> proof. Easy to automatize with a simple script, easy to debug, unlikely that
> anything ever gets lost or into the wrong hands, only using standard
> protocols.

So let me see, that makes a total of... aah... um... one doctor that 
your provider services ;-)
( I realize the supplier could be a branch lab, maybe the specimens 
are even processed elsewhere, I just couldn't resist...)

But for the less-initiated (me):

1) when you say "the requesting doctor polls", is is straightforward 
to set up the server to poll the mailbox, are special software 
packages required to process S/MIME email

2) would this approach scale well, for example if a lab (or data 
clearinghouse) had a thousand doctor groups, would the administrative 
workload for the lab to maintain such a system be unattractive?