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LOINC Version 2.32 and RELMA Version 4.5 Available
Current LOINC and RELMA versions released June 30, 2010
RELMA 4.5, released: June 30, 2010
LOINC and RELMA User's Guides: June 2010
Go to Available Downloads
New Features
New LOINC Content
LOINC version 2.32 contains 58,967 terms, an increase of 1,274 since the February 2010 version. Approximately 470 terms have been edited. A total of 1,612 terms have been deprecated.
This release contains a major enhancement to the STATUS field. In the past, the field only had two concept values - null and DEL. With this release, there are four concept values - ACTIVE (previously null), DEPRECATED (previously DEL),DISCOURAGED (new) and TRIAL (new). These are defined as follows:
- ACTIVE: Concept is active. Use at will.
- TRIAL: Concept is experimental in nature. Use with caution as the concept and associated attributes may change.
- DISCOURAGED: Concept is not recommended for current use. New mappings to this concept are discouraged; although existing may mappings may continue to be valid in context. Wherever possible, the superseding concept is indicated in the MAP_TO field of the database and should be used instead..
- DEPRECATED: Concept is deprecated. Concept should not be used, but it is retained in LOINC for historical purposes. Wherever possible, the superseding concept is indicated in the MAP_TO field of the database and should be used both for new mappings and updating existing implementations..
Included in this release is a large number of DRUG/TOX terms requested by a toxicology and forensic testing laboratory and a number of new CARD.US terms for pediatic ultrasound.
New RELMA Features
- Part Search is a new tab on the mapping form that lets you search for common LOINC Parts.
- The parts search uses Lucene, which is a powerful open-source text search engine that has a Google-like query syntax.
- Part Search now has a help button that brings up a modal dialog with the text from the RELMA manual describing Part Search syntax.
- Several changes to LOINC Proposal features
- Requesting a LOINC has now been split into two functions for easier use -- "Propose a new LOINC" (which brings up an empty LOINC proposal form) and "Propose a LOINC based on selected term" (which brings up a LOINC proposal form filled-in with data from the currently-selected LOINC (and local term if you are on the mapping screen)).
- Extraneous fields in the Requested LOINCs database have been removed. Please refer to the RELMA User Guide for specifics.
- Species-level information is no longer accepted via the Request LOINC form. The Submission database will retain this field to continue to allow users to manually populate this field via Microsoft Access directly.
- Separate restrictions for trial, discouraged, and deprecated LOINCs have been implemented. The default is to include trial LOINCs but exclude discouraged and deprecated LOINCs.
- The right-click "Sort Grid" action now uses a vertical display (one row for each column in the grid to sort) which should be easier to read.
- "Custom Export" settings are now sticky -- they stay the same between RELMA sessions.
- You can now directly select the type of LOINC details display to view from the right-click menu with:
- View Details - Simple
- View Details - Comprehensive
- View Details - Custom (When viewing Parts, selecting any of these performs the identical "View Details" action for Parts.)
- "View Panel Children" is a new right-click (context menu) action to display the children of the currently-selected LOINC panel in a grid on a new form. You can then perform all normal right-click actions on the LOINCs in this grid -- Copy to Clipboard, Export to Excel, etc.
- Custom Export now lets you export all rows or only the selected rows.
- The mapping screen now lets you type in the local term file entry # so you can go to that term directly.
- LOINC and Part grid (flat) search results now preserve their sort order between searches when you use the Sort Grid right-click action. For example, if you search LOINC for OPIATES, "Sort Grid" ascending by the Component, then search for MORPHINE, the search results for MORPHINE will be sorted by Component.
- The View All Working Set Terms screen now has an "Export Local Term File" button.
- Upon completion of a text or HL7 import, a summary will appear showing the results. After user confirmation of the results, the process to identify unrecognizable concepts (battery, test, or units) will start automatically, showing words that RELMA cannot use for synonyms.
- The Custom Display now gives you finer-grained control over what LOINC Part information you see.
- Search result grids / trees now display an example UCUM units column, located just before the example units column.
- Search result grids / trees now display the HL7 CDA document section column, located just after the Order/Observation column.
- Ctrl-E is now a shortcut for the Export right-click action.
- Ctrl-P is now a shortcut for the Print right-click action.
The LMOF3.MDB database and RELMA.MDB database are now installed in the CommonDocumentsFolder\RELMA directory. Below is the default location for this directory on various operating systems.
Windows XP = C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\RELMA\
Windows Vista = C:\Users\Public\Documents\RELMA\
Windows 7 = C:\Users\Public\Documents\RELMA\
I am a new user. How will this affect me?
The first time you run RELMA, the program will automatically use the databases in the CommonDocumentsFolder\RELMA directory. No additional work is required on your part.
I am an existing user. How will this affect me?
The RELMA 4.4 installation will remove the previously installed RELMA.MDB database. It will also install a new RELMA.MDB database and a blank LMOF3.MDB database in the CommonDocumentsFolder\RELMA directory. The first time you run RELMA, the program will continue to use your existing LMOF3.MDB database that contains all of your local codes and mappings. Also, it will automatically repoint itself to the new RELMA.MDB database in the CommonDocumentsFolder\RELMA directory. So, this should be a seamless transition that does not require any additional work on your part. If you encounter a problem with the transition please contact the LOINC group via email at loinc@regenstrief.org. We are more than happy to work with you on any issues that you may experience.
I am an administrator. How will this affect me?
Upon completion of the installation you can log off and hand the machine back over to the user. No additional work is required on your part.
Why aren't the databases being installed in My Documents anymore?
Several of our users have their software installed by an Administrator. This meant that the databases were installed in the My Documents\RELMA directory for the Administrator. Most users do not have access to this directory and therefore were unable to run RELMA without additional work on the part of the
Administrator. This issue has been resolved by installing the databases in the CommonDocumentsFolder area which is a public area that all users of the machine typically have write access to.
