Timeline of LOINC history

  • Clem McDonald, Stan Huff, John Baenziger, Carol Cesta, Tom Fiers, Arden Forrey, Dennis Leavelle, Doug Martin, and Frank Stallings first meet at Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis to discuss a public use code system for exchanging laboratory and clinical observations between computer systems.

  • A second formative meeting convenes to establish what would become LOINC.

  • LOINC 1.0 is released with more than 6,000 laboratory test results.

  • The original article describing the standard, Logical observation identifier names and codes (LOINC) database: a public use set of codes and names for electronic reporting of clinical laboratory test results, was published in Clinical Chemistry.

  • HL7 identifies LOINC as a preferred code set for laboratory test names in transactions between health care facilities, laboratories, laboratory testing devices, and public health authorities.

  • The LOINC.org internet domain name is registered to serve as the home of LOINC's web presence.

  • The first LOINC Public Meeting is held at Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis. First LOINC Public Meeting

  • LOINC 2.0 is released with 28,694 terms.

  • The 50,000th LOINC code is released with LOINC version 2.22.

  • The Twitter account @LOINC is established.

  • The Search LOINC web app, now available at search.loinc.org, is launched.

  • RELMA version 5.0 is released. It adds Lucene indexes for vastly improved searching. Rather than separate builds, this is also the first version to incorporate all supported languages.

  • LOINC reaches 10,000 registered users.

  • RELMA version 6.0 is released.

  • The LOINC OID (2.16.840.1.113883.6.1) for an external code system is registered with HL7.

  • RSNA and Regenstrief announce effort to unify radiology procedure naming.

  • LOINC's Premium Membership program launches.

  • J. Gilbert Hill and Cindy Johns are named the inaugural recipients of the LOINC Award for Distinguished Contributions.

  • IICC announces LIVD, a specification for digital publication of LOINC to vendor IVD test results in clinical laboratories.

  • Susan Matney receives the LOINC Award for Distinguished Contributions.

  • Betsy L. Humphreys of the U.S. National Library of Medicine is presented with an honorary LOINC code (86466-0) on the event of her retirement. Betsy Humphreys and Daniel Vreeman

  • LOINC reaches 50,000 registered users.

  • The first LOINC Conference, a restructured event comprising workshops and LOINC Committee meeting, is held at Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis.

  • Pamela D. Banning receives the LOINC Award for Distinguished Contributions.

  • U.S. Food & Drug Administration sets requirement for LOINC to be used for lab test data in studies starting after 2020.

  • LOINC releases a new Guide for Using LOINC Microbiology Terms to assist users in identifying the correct LOINC code for microbiology and infectious disease laboratory tests.

  • LOINC announces new terminology services API using HL7® FHIR®.

  • To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its inception, the inaugural LOINC Day is held.

  • LOINC reaches 75,000 registered users.

  • LOINC surpasses 100,000 registered users.

  • Marjorie Rallins, DPM, MS, becomes LOINC Executive Director.

  • Version 2 of the SearchLOINC web app is released.

  • The 100,000th LOINC code is released with LOINC version 2.75.