Uses
Some of the advantages resulting from adopting LOINC may include improved communication in integrated healthcare delivery networks, improved community wide electronic health records, the automatic transfer to public health authorities of case reports for reportable diseases (e.g. for disease control or detection of epidemics), improved transfer of payment information for services rendered and a significant improvement in the overall quality of health care by reducing errors in the system.
The fact that universal standards are being promoted (if not adopted by national organizations and agencies) is an indication that the dialogue will continue regarding the development, structure, financing, monitoring, enforcement, and integration of standards within the broader health care system.
International interest in LOINC continues to grow. A number of efforts have been undertaken to translate the LOINC documents and terms into various languages, such as Simplified Chinese, German, Spanish. For more information on LOINC International, see LOINC International. As of January, 2009, the software RELMA (Regenstrief LOINC Mapping Assistant) is available in separate downloads that contain an additional word index in Spanish, Simplified Chinese, or Korean, which allows searching in these languages in addition to English. Harmonization efforts between LOINC and SNOMED CT were initiated in 2012.
Read more about this topic: LOINC