Summary of the LOINC Survey

Last May, a survey was sent to all LOINC (Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes) users registered on its website. A total of 522 responses were obtained from which the following conclusions can be drawn:

Of all the clinical domains included within LOINC, 82% use the laboratory domain, followed by 35% who responded that they use clinical measures and 28% who use clinical documents. These figures suggest that although LOINC has several clinical domains,  the laboratory domain is the one which is used predominantly.

LOINC also includes a software package called RELMA which makes it possible to access its catalogue instead of viewing the online catalogue via its website. A series of questions were included in the survey to determine how it is used. Significantly 85% of respondents do not use RELMA. As a result, the website tool for managing LOINC is clearly sufficient in most instances. Of those who use it, the largest group (35%), use it to search for LOINC terms; while 17% use it to help map local terms to LOINC.

Several questions involved the LOINC website, relating to which features ought to be included in the web tool. Some 38% indicated that they would like to see term mapping tools, while 16% said that they would like to be able to search for partial terms.

In the technological field, we asked about the use of the LOINC API for programming tasks. 71% indicated that they do not use it, compared with 7% who do, although 21% indicated they intended to use it in the near future.

If you would like more information on the subject, please do not hesitate to send any questions to ofsti@ticsalutsocial.cat