9.7 Panels and Forms File

As described in Section 7, LOINC Panels contain a specific structure with optional attributes, and depending on the type of panel, can include attributes values such as form coding instructions, skip logic, optionality, and nested panels. The following describes the release artifacts which define these concepts and their parent/child relationships.

9.7.1 Files in the PanelsAndForms directory

The PanelsAndForms directory within AccessoryFiles collects the all the relational tables used to define panels in LOINC.

PanelsAndForms.csv

This file contains all of the panels in LOINC, with one row representing each individual term within the panel along with information specific to the instance of that term within the panel, including the display name for the specific form, cardinality, skip logic and form coding instructions. Some LOINC panels contain child panels nested underneath. For the nested panels, the row for each term within that panel will have the value for the immediate parent in the “Parent” column. And for the nested panel terms themselves, the panel terms that contain them will be contained in their “Parent” column.

This hierarchical structure uses the adjacency list model. It is represented in the file by the ParentID, ID and SEQUENCE fields. The root, or top level, records in the file are those records where the ParentID = ID.

For example, if Panel A contains Panel B and C, and Panel B contains Terms 1, 2 and 3 and Panel C contains Terms 4, 5 and 6, this would be represented as:

Note that this file is limited to LOINC panel terms and their child elements. LOINC terms that don’t exist as part of a panel are NOT included.

AnswerList.csv
LoincAnswerListLink.csv

These are duplicates of the files included in AnswerFile. They are described within their own subsection.

Loinc.csv

Like with the previous two files, this is a duplicate of content located in the LoincTable directory. Its data is described in detail in Appendix A.

9.7.2 Panel data structure example

The following examples show how the data is presented for the respective panel in the PanelsAndForms.csv file. Several empty columns have been omitted from the following representation.

62341-3 Borrelia burgdorferi IgG+IgM with reflex to immune blot panel - Serum