The Logical Observation Identifiers, Names, and Codes (LOINC) Nursing Subcommittee is a sub-group of the Clinical LOINC Committee. The Clinical LOINC Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of the clinical LOINC codes and reviews potential terms for inclusion in the LOINC database. The purpose of the Nursing Subcommittee is to facilitate the development and use of LOINC codes for observations used during key stages of the nursing process, including assessments, goals, and outcomes and also to meet the needs for administrative, research, and quality measurement initiatives related to nursing care.1 The Subcommittee focuses on the development of LOINC terms and education regarding interoperability standards. This article provides an update on the recent nursing LOINC content development and description of the education provided to the committee.
CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
The Subcommittee is closely aligned with the Nursing Knowledge Big Data Initiative (NKBDI).2 The NKBDI is comprised of many workgroups including the Nursing Knowledge Encoding and Modeling Workgroup. The Nursing Knowledge Encoding and Modeling Workgroup develops nursing knowledge models, such as pain assessment, which are standardly encoded by the Encoding and Modeling Workgroup.3 The Encoding and Modeling Workgroup maps the data in the knowledge model to LOINC and SNOMED and requests new terms when none is found.4 The most recent models published in LOINC are multiple pain panels. The LOINC Pain Assessment Panel (see Table 1) includes all questions related to pain. In addition, several different pain assessment scales have been curated into LOINC including the Neonatal Pain, Agitation, and Sedation Scale, the Neonatal Infant Pain Scale, and the Checklist of Nonverbal Pain Indicators.5-7 Additional pain scales are being investigated. The Nursing Physiologic Assessment Panel was also developed by the NKBDI and contains panels for different body systems such as the Respiratory Assessment Panel and the Cardiovascular Assessment Panel.4 The NKBDI is developing genitourinary and falls risk knowledge models.
Future nursing LOINC development includes the Neonatal Pain, Agitation, and Sedation Scale; genitourinary assessment and falls, in collaboration with NKBDI; and the perioperative nursing data set outcomes, in collaboration with the Association of Operating Room Nurses. The committee is also advising on the development of a LOINC content request process with the NKBDI Nursing Knowledge Encoding and Modeling Workgroup.
EDUCATION
The education sessions have focused on LOINC and additional interoperability efforts. Below is a list of recent education:
* LOINC Document Ontology Tutorial - David Baorto (Regenstrief)
* RELMA Tutorial - Susan Matney (Intermountain Healthcare)
* COVID Interoperability Alliance - Carol Macumber (Clinical Architecture)
* Nursing Knowledge Big Data Science Modeling Group
LOINC Copyright Process - Tess Settergren and Stephanie Hartleben
Mapping Heuristics Document - Tess Settergren and Stephanie Hartleben
Nursing Knowledge Modeling
The slides from the education sessions as well as meeting minutes are freely available on the Nursing Clinical LOINC Subcommittee page (available from https://loinc.org/committee/nursing/).1
We welcome prospective new committee members who have an interest in LOINC (ie, you are a LOINC user), are willing to participate actively, and have demonstrated commitment to LOINC as indicated by prior attendance (in-person or virtual). Information as to how to join can be found in the link above. We look forward to enabling the interoperability of nursing data.
References