LOINC implementation challenges

Posted by Association for Pathology Informatics
Fri 12 November 2021 in Vocabularies

General resources

  • Main site at Regenstrief: https://loinc.org/

Automated LOINC mapping

A number of efforts to provide automated or semi-automated approaches to ensuring consistent selection of LOINC identifiers across organizations and data sets have been described.

  • Parr, et al. (2018) 1 describes "an automated machine learning pipeline that leverages noisy labels to map laboratory data to LOINC codes" using lab results in the VA data warehouse.

Criticisms of LOINC

Important criticisms regarding the real-world utility of LOINC have been raised. Some notable examples:

  • Stram, et. al. (2020)2 described inconsistencies in the selection of LOINC identifiers for coagulation assays and cardiac markers in a large survey of laboratories.

  1. Parr SK, et al. Automated mapping of laboratory tests to LOINC codes using noisy labels in a national electronic health record system database. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2018 PMID 30137378 ↩

  2. Stram M, et al. A Survey of LOINC Code Selection Practices Among Participants of the College of American Pathologists Coagulation (CGL) and Cardiac Markers (CRT) Proficiency Testing Programs. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2020 PMID 31603714 ↩

LOINC