Share this page:

Three Decades of Empowering Diagnostic Decision-Making: LOINC's Milestone Celebration

Posted on February 12, 2024 by Anil Patel and Linda Monico

Card World Standards Day 2021 ENInfoway congratulates the Regenstrief Institute in commemorating a significant achievement – the invaluable contribution of LOINC® as a global standard for health data over the past three decades. As the acronym suggests (Logical Observation Identifiers, Names, and Codes), LOINC® serves as the international standard for identifying health measurements, observations, and documents.

With a reach that spans reference labs, health care providers, government agencies, insurance companies, software and device manufacturers, researchers, and global consumers, LOINC codes are essential in seamlessly moving data across health systems. This widespread adoption not only streamlines information exchange but also empowers health care providers to make informed diagnostic decisions, ultimately enhancing healthcare outcomes.

In Canada, LOINC has been at the forefront since 2006, forming the foundation for the pan-Canadian LOINC Observation Code Database (pCLOCD). This database, tailored to meet the specific needs of Canadian stakeholders, adheres to LOINC copyright rules and supports the use of SI units, Unified Code for Units of Measure, and Canadian French.

The successful implementation of pCLOCD across most of Canada, solidifies LOINC's status as the Canadian standard for interoperability in laboratory ordering and reporting. This milestone underscores LOINC's enduring impact and integral role in advancing health data standards on both a national and global scale.

Additionally, in recent years, LOINC Document Ontology has been integrated in some provinces. LOINC Document Ontology provides for the structured representation of clinical documents, ensuring that vital medical information is uniformly categorized and exchanged. This holistic approach significantly contributes to the enhancement of data standardization and interoperability in Canada.

While there is work ahead for interoperability in health care, let’s take a moment to celebrate the accomplishments thus far and extend our congratulations to LOINC on their 30-year milestone.


photo of author, Anil Patel

Anil Patel BSc, CTSS, HICA (CHIMA) is a Senior Specialist on Digital Health Interoperability team at Infoway, supporting Canadian stakeholders with SNOMED CT®, LOINC, HL7 and Subsets as an expert terminologist. Specializes in architecture solutions for organizations.

 

photo of author, Linda Monico

Linda Monico leads the authoring and publishing of the bi-annual release of pan-Canadian LOINC Observation Code Database (pCLOCD). She is a Senior Specialist on Digital Health Interoperability team at Infoway, supporting the National Standards Release Centre and InfoCentral, Infoway’s digital health collaboration platform.

Tell us what you think.
Submit your article for an InfoCentral Spotlight.


Email Us to get started.

Disclaimers

The views expressed in these editorials are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Canada Health Infoway and do not represent the views of the Minister of Health or any representative of the Government of Canada.

Infoway welcomes comments to our editorials, including comments that are constructive disagreements. However, promotional comments, malicious comments, or comments that contain profane language or personal attacks will not be posted.

Although we strive to update and keep accurate as much as possible the content contained on our website, errors and/or omissions may occur.The content contained in this website or which may be downloaded from this website is provided "as is" and "as available". As such, Infoway makes no warranty or representation regarding the quality, accuracy or completeness of such content and expressly disclaims liability for errors and/or omissions in said content.

InfoCentral logo

Improving the quality of patient care through the effective sharing of clinical information among health care organizations, clinicians and their patients.