Regenstrief Institute and SNOMED International are set to debut the first production release of the LOINC Ontology: A LOINC and SNOMED CT Interoperability Solution. The LOINC Ontology is designed to enhance the ability of health data exchange implementers worldwide to use the two terminologies together.
This work is the result of nearly three years of collaboration to coordinate terminology issued by both standards development organizations, including this first official version of LOINC terms within SNOMED CT’s ontological framework.
This ontology builds on the technical preview launched in 2023 on the loincsnomed.org website. The new release will feature more than 35,000 concepts in the laboratory domain, representing at least 80% of test volume. Additional lab content will be added incrementally as will clinical observations, documents, radiology, and survey assessments.
Existing SNOMED CT observables will be aligned to LOINC codes and new LOINC codes will be created as needed. LOINC Parts will be mapped to SNOMED concepts, and new SNOMED CT concepts will be created as needed.