NHSnet—learning from academia
BMJ 1999; 318 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.318.7180.377 (Published 06 February 1999) Cite this as: BMJ 1999;318:377
This article has a correction. Please see:
- T J Roscoe, informatics tutor, Institute of General Practice and Primary Care (troscoe@medical-legal.co.uk)a,
- M Wells, emeritus professorb
- aBeighton Health Centre, Sheffield S20 1BJ
- bDepartment of Physics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT
- Correspondence to: Dr Roscoe
- Accepted 6 October 1998
The government white paper The New NHS has suggested that all general practices will be connected to NHSnet, the NHS computer network, by the year 2002.1 NHSnet is a secure private network based on internet technologies. It will be the largest public sector project to connect computers in this country since the early 1980s, when the Joint Academic Network (JANET) was created by the universities and research councils. The policy decisions relating to security, networking products, and funding that were taken when JANET was created are pertinent to NHSnet and require deeper consideration and wider discussion.
Summary points
The Joint Academic Network (JANET) and the NHS network NHSnet are both large, widespread computer networks in the United Kingdom, and the lessons learnt in creating JANET should be considered for NHSnet
Policy decisions about security, connectivity, and finance have a great effect on the type of network that is created
Confidentiality is of paramount importance in NHS communications, and it is vital that NHSnet has secure safeguards built into it
Connecting a computer to thousands of others must make it less secure; security has to be the remit of end users
Creation of JANET
The Computer Board for Universities and Research Councils was formed in 1966 in response to difficulties in funding computing resources in the tertiary education and research sector.2 The board initially concentrated on funding computers in individual universities but increasingly came to focus on the provision of shared regional systems to allow access to large scale computing. The board also fostered the development of computer networks, primarily to provide access to powerful shared facilities that were being set up in the 1970s. In 1975 a working party recommended a rolling programme of investment in network services and the creation of a unit to oversee developments to facilitate networking.
With this encouragement, …