Want to standardize your units but are intimidated by UCUM? You can get started in no time with this handy table.

At first glance, the Unified Code for Units of Measure (UCUM) may seem pretty complex. But for most of the units you use, the UCUM representation is pretty recognizable. And, for many simple units the UCUM syntax is actually the same string as what you currently use. To help get you going, we’ve created this translation table that enumerates the UCUM syntax for many common unit patterns currently used in electronic reporting.

We composed this early version in relatively short order and focused on the basics. It was based on content provided by Intermountain Healthcare, from a joint National Library of Medicine and Regenstrief Institute project analyzing raw units from more than 23 laboratory sources, and from the HL7 table of units. We excluded the units of measure for which we couldn’t find clear definitions or patterns of usage, those we believed would only be used in pharmacy dispensing, and units used for purely clinical reporting (e.g. cigarette pack-years). We have included most of the pure metric units from our sources, whether or not they apply directly to lab testing because they will be generally useful (and are pretty straightforward in UCUM).

You can read more detail about the process used to generate this table in the Preface.

Table of Example UCUM Codes for Electronic Messaging

• Table of Example UCUM Codes for Electronic Messaging - Preface to Version 1.1 (pdf)
  File Version: Table of Example UCUM Codes for Electronic Messaging Preface 1.1 | File type: application/pdf | Release Date: 2011-10-04
• Table of Example UCUM Codes for Electronic Messaging - Version 1.1 (pdf)
  File Version: Table of Example UCUM Codes for Electronic Messaging 1.1 | File type: application/pdf | Release Date: 2011-10-04
• Table of Example UCUM Codes for Electronic Messaging - Version 1.1 (xlsx)
  File Version: Table of Example UCUM Codes for Electronic Messaging 1.1 | File type:application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet | Release Date: 2011-10-04