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The Practice of Informatics: Development of the Logical Observation Identifier Names and Codes (LOINC) Vocabulary Stanley M. Huff, Roberto A. Rocha, Clement J. McDonald, Georges J. E. De Moor, Tom Fiers, W. Dean Bidgood, Jr., Arden W. Forrey, William G. Francis, Wayne R. Tracy, Dennis Leavelle, Frank Stalling, Brian Griffin, Pat Maloney, Diane Leland, Linda Charles, Kathy Hutchins, and John Baenziger J Am Med Inform Assoc 1998; 5: 276-292 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Response to question on standards for coded values.

Stan Huff   (5 March 2001)

Abbreviations

Bakkiam Subbiah   (16 February 2001)

Response to question on standards for coded values. 5 March 2001
Stan Huff, Medical Informaticist Intermountain Health Care Send letter to journal: Re: Response to question on standards for coded values. coshuff{at}ihc.com Stan Huff	The LOINC system does not provide standard codes for values of coded observations. It provides example values, but these are not normative and no codes are provided for the example values. The HL7 vocabulary technical committee is working to provide standard codes for all data sent in version 3 HL7 messsages. Version 3 of the message standard specification will be balloted at the end of this year (2001). In most cases, HL7 will specify the use of an existing coding scheme to meet this need. The most likely candidate as a coding scheme for clinical data is SNOMED. However, SNOMED is available from the College of American Pathologists, but it requires a license. Negotiations are underway for the US Government to license SNOMED for use within the US. Betsy Humphreys at the National Library of Medicine is leading the negotiations on behalf of the Government. It will probably be several months before those negotiations are concluded. Bottom line: There are no free-for-use standard terminologies available for coding typical values of laboratory tests. There is hope that something would be available within the next year.
Abbreviations 16 February 2001
Bakkiam Subbiah, Physician Genesis Health System Send letter to journal: Re: Abbreviations subbiahb{at}genesishealth.com Bakkiam Subbiah	I would like some guidance for the following: In one of our POC systems, the lab results reporting field accomodates only six alphanumeric characters and maps anything larger to a *. eg. Platelet Count Adequate becomes Platelet Count *. Our enterprise, comprised of four hospitals, has obviously four different lists. I am looking for a standarized (or generally acceptable) abbreviation list for such results. Can you point me in the right direction? Does the LOINC Committee provide a list?