WHITE PAPER BY DR. WHITTENBURG, RN, PM, FHIMSS
Accessible, shareable health information is a prerequisite for delivering effective, high-quality healthcare. To achieve this, we use a concept-based approach with internationally standardized reference terminologies. The white paper below explains how standard terminologies support the exchange and documentation of health information. It highlights their value from the perspectives of clinicians, patients, and healthcare organizations. Standard terminologies ensure accurate data communication across health systems and support healthcare interoperability.
The ONC considers these terminologies vital for creating quality conformance measures across diverse platforms. They bring consistency, clarity, and usability to how we understand a patient's medical history. In knowledge-based healthcare, standardized terminology is absolutely essential. It allows us to collect and compare meaningful health data across settings and systems. This, in turn, reveals what care and services patients need for the best outcomes. We rely on standardized terminologies to support smarter clinical decision-making. As data becomes more consistent, our technical, business, and management systems grow stronger.
Standardized Terminologies for Data Interoperability in Health Information Exchange (pdf)
CLINICAL TERMINOLOGIES
Our clinical terminology consulting services at JPSYS cover many facets of healthcare EHR systems.
At JPSYS, our clinical terminology consulting services support multiple aspects of healthcare EHR systems. We offer expert help in terminology matching, data models, data standards, and curated healthcare data sets. Our team provides terminology mapping for LOINC and SNOMED CT across various healthcare and research environments. We assist academic centers, hospitals, biotech companies, research labs, IVD vendors, and more. Today, labs and IVD vendors must map test data to LOINC under FDA guidance.
Since 2020, research labs face a mandatory requirement, while others receive strong recommendations. Our subject matter experts help clients complete LOINC mapping and FDA submissions efficiently. The HIT standards development process results from a worldwide effort led by Standards Development Organizations (SDOs).
The Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) standards development process is the result of a world-wide effort of Standards Development Organizations (SDOs).
We collaborate in SDO workgroups with representatives from government, industry, and nonprofits. Together, we agree on data formats and value sets for health information exchange. These value sets define standard codes used in messages sent between healthcare providers. By using standards, all recipients interpret the data consistently and accurately. The core issue is that coded values vary between hospital EHR systems.
The data values stored in a specific data field are coded in different ways by different hospital EHR systems.
Even two hospitals using the same EHR may store different formats for the same field. For example, one system may store blood type as "9253" while another stores "O+". Resolving this requires a time-consuming and expensive mapping of every data element. Adding a new data-sharing partner repeats this process—costing more time and money. Instead, hospitals should map their data to international reference terminologies. This allows data to flow clearly, with precise meaning, between systems.
The LOINC terminology standard is governed by the Regenstrief Institute a dynamic, people-centered research organization.
We call these international value sets standardized reference terminologies.
SNOMED CT supports clinical terms, LOINC supports lab test codes, and MED-RT supports drug information.
LOINC is maintained by the Regenstrief Institute, a leading healthcare research organization. Regenstrief promotes better healthcare through improved access to standardized information. LOINC’s mission is to connect and innovate for better global health. It supports clinical research across sectors—academic centers, biotech firms, CROs, federal agencies, and IT vendors. Source: Regenstrief Institute
