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Using RELMA
FAQ overview
- How can I see the results of my searches in the tree (hierachy) view?
- How can I limit my searches to find common lab tests?
- How does RELMA’s Intelligent Mapper work?
- On the main mapping screen, the "Map" button is greyed out, how can I enable the Map feature?
- How can I use RELMA to update my mappings to concepts that may have been deprecated in a new version of LOINC?
How can I see the results of my searches in the tree (hierachy) view?
You can toggle between the regular table listing for the search results or our new tree search results (button on right hand side of screen). When you are in tree search mode, the search results are displayed in the context of their hierarchy, which can help you see the relevant tests in an order. Here’s a screenshot of a search for “thyroid bld” in its tree context:
How can I limit my searches to find common lab tests?
We created an empirically-based list of the most common LOINC result codes for laboratories, practices, researchers, and others who wish to map their laboratory test codes to universal LOINC codes. Knowing that relatively few codes account for much of the result volume, we think that Top 2000+ list will be an excellent starter set. This list contains 2017 most commonly reported LOINC codes that represent about 98% of the test volume carried by three large organizations that mapped all of their laboratory tests to LOINC codes. The Top 2000+ LOINC terms have their relative rank stored in the COMMON_TEST_RANK field of the main LOINC table.Starting with RELMA 5.3, the program's "common lab tests only" filter will limits searches to only return codes in this common test list.
Read more about LOINC's empirically-derived value sets.
How does RELMA’s Intelligent Mapper work?
The Intelligent Mapper (IM), is an automated tool within RELMA for producing a ranked list of candidate LOINC terms for each local term in a submission file. IM identifies candidate LOINC codes by counting the number of matches between words in the local term name and words (or synonyms) in the formal LOINC term names. Before doing the matching, it expands the words in the local term name into a tree of synonyms. For example, “CHEST MRA” becomes “CHEST, (MRI ANGIO, MRA).” IM counts exact-string word matches for all possible combinations of words and synonyms (e.g., “CHEST, MRI ANGIO” and “CHEST, MRA” are counted separately), and then uses the best count as the first part of its match score. IM ranks the candidate LOINC terms for relevance first by the number of words matched (the more the better), and second on the total number of words in the LOINC term (the fewer the better). If no words in the local term match to any in LOINC, IM does not return any candidate terms.
On the main mapping screen, the "Map" button is greyed out, how can I enable the Map feature?
Before the RELMA program will let you map a record, several things must be in place.
- Select a local code. The easiest way to ensure to ensure that a local code has been selected is to click the "First" button on the left side of the screen.
- Before mapping a term, run a successful search and then select one of the LOINC codes from the bottom portion of the screen. The screen shot below shows where to find these items.
How can I use RELMA to update my mappings to concepts that may have been deprecated in a new version of LOINC?
With new versions of the LOINC database, some concepts from previous versions may have been deprecated. LOINC codes are not ever re-used nor removed from the database. Instead, if a term is identified as having been created in error, it is flagged as deprecated (or inactive). Where possible, if an active code is to supersede the deprecated term in use, the preferred replacement term will be identified in the MAP_TO field of the database. If you have mapped your terms to LOINC, it is important that you review new versions of LOINC to find these deprecated terms and their potential replacements.
