In this episode, Kelly Kuru, Chief Communications and Collaborations Officer at SNOMED International, and Marjorie Rallins, Executive Director of Health Data Standards at LOINC, discuss their organizations' collaboration in developing the LOINC Ontology, an extension of SNOMED CT for the LOINC terminology. They delve into the importance of this joint effort and highlight the history and ongoing efforts to integrate SNOMED CT and LOINC. The episode also covers the technical aspects, challenges, and successes of this collaboration, emphasizing the mutual benefits for those involved and the positive impact it is likely to have on the global healthcare community. Anyone interested in learning more about the ontology can attend a free webinar hosted by LOINC on March 25, 2025 from 09:30-11:30 EST /14:30-16:00 UTC. Webinar link: https://iu.zoom.us/j/82903013772
The SNOMED-LOINC Collaboration: Advancing Interoperability
Episode 05: Show Notes
LOINC (which stands for Logical Observations, Identifiers, Names, and Codes) is an international standard for identifying health measurements, observations, and documents. Over the past few years, SNOMED International and Regenstrief Institute, which oversees LOINC, have been collaborating on an exciting interoperability solution that will be released in the coming weeks.
In this episode, Kelly Kuru, Chief Communications and Collaborations Officer at SNOMED International, is joined by Marjorie Rallins, Executive Director of Health Data Standards at LOINC, to discuss this collaboration. They delve into the importance of this joint effort in developing standards for digital health and interoperability. The conversation highlights the history and ongoing efforts to integrate SNOMED CT and LOINC. The episode also covers the technical aspects, challenges, and successes of this collaboration, emphasizing the mutual benefits for those involved and the positive impact it is likely to have on the global healthcare community.
Key Points From This Episode:
Quotes:
“And I really look at our two organizations, our communities, as really one community or a Venn diagram that overlaps almost completely.” — Marjorie Rallins [0:09:08]
“We all gained from diversity of complementary skills and knowledge. We've talked about that in some of our joint discussions. And we've sort of experienced sustained and collective community interests.” — Marjorie Rallins [0:19:42]
“We got some value out of being able to transform the LOINC terminology into the concept model in a way that we hadn't anticipated and that actually saved resources.” — Marjorie Rallins [0:19:59]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: