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Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC)

About

LOINC is a set of identifiers, names and codes for identifying health measurements, observations and documents.

It is owned, maintained and distributed by Regenstrief Institute, Inc USA.

A universal code system will enable facilities and departments across the world to receive and send results from their areas for comparison and consultation and may contribute toward a larger public health initiative of improving clinical outcomes and quality of care.

A formal, distinct, and unique 6-part name is given to each term for test or observation identity. The database currently has 84868 terms that can be accessed and understood universally.

LOINC has two main parts: laboratory LOINC and clinical LOINC.

Each database record includes six fields for the unique specification of each identified single test, observation, or measurement:

About LOINC Standard

Regenstrief LOINC Mapping Assistant (RELMA) is a Windows-based mapping utility for searching the LOINC database and mapping local codes to LOINC codes. It is available for free.

Purpose

Several standards, such as IHE or HL7, use LOINC to electronically transfer results from different reporting systems to the appropriate healthcare networks. Most laboratory and clinical systems are sending data out using the HL7 version 2.X messaging standard. Therefore LOINC can be used to move data seamlessly between systems.

Adoption of LOINC results in significant advantages

Purpose of LOINC Standard

Resources


Get Standard

It is free of cost and can be downloaded from LOINC website