LOINC® provides a set of universal identifiers and names for laboratory and other clinical observations (as well as orders for those observations) designed to facilitate exchange and pooling of clinical data across institutions for improved clinical care, outcomes management, public health, and research. Since its inception, the LOINC® standard has been developed openly with the help of many volunteers worldwide.  Regenstrief Institute welcomes requests for new LOINC® content (terms, codes or associated material) and suggestions about revisions to existing content within the LOINC® table or RELMA® database (such as synonyms and term descriptions).  By submitting requests to Regenstrief, you agree to be bound by the terms of the LOINC Submissions Policy.

Process for Submitting New Term Requests

Types of Requests

In general, requests to Regenstrief Institute fall into two categories:

1. The first kind of request deals with (a) an entirely new kind of measurement, e.g. DNA sequencing or (b) the use of LOINC codes in manners that have not been agreed upon by the LOINC committee. For example, the definition of terms to accommodate the organism 1, organism 2, etc., structures that are present in many laboratory databases. These requests may take longer to process as they can involve more in depth analysis and discussion by the LOINC Committee.
   
2. Other requests are variations on observations that are already in the database. For example, we have a term for a particular test result with serum as the specimen (system) and a user requests an identical term for a specimen of gastric contents. Regenstrief tries to respond to these kinds of requests quickly.

How to Make a Submission

Please see Appendix D of the LOINC Users' Guide for complete information on the process of submitting terms.

Regenstrief will only be able to respond quickly to submissions if the requester provides us with clear information about the new terms. Before sending a request, make sure that you have, at a minimum, provided information about the:

• Component
• Property
• Timing aspect
• System
• Scale
• Method (if submitted)
  

It is also very useful to submit (and often required to verify the property, scale, and method):

• Units of measure
• Example results (answers) of the test/observation

Format for Requests

1. Microsoft Access database (mdb) - the preferred format and the one that RELMA will produce on your behalf
   
2. Tab delimited ASCII file (txt)
3. Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (xls)

Downloads for LOINC Submissions

	Download the RELMA program The RELMA program can be used to create a LOINC submission file. Appendix B of the RELMA Manual describes the submission process.
	Download the LOINC submission database The submission database can be used to request terms to add to the LOINC database.

Requests for Changes to Existing LOINC Content

We welcome input and comments from all LOINC users. If you find a test in LOINC that you believe is wrong or misrepresented, please send us an email (loinc@regenstrief.org) calling attention to the term (code and name), the suggested action, and your rationale. Some reasons to make a change suggestion might include: a term that deviates from the standard nomenclature, a typographical error, having a system of serum when it is only valid when performed on plasma, or duplicate terms.