in 2004 , the national health information standard committee ( nhisc ) was established under the korean ministry of health and welfare ( mohw ) to standardize national health information , and 14 practical committees composed of field specialists were organized the laboratory test terminology practical committee was in charge of standardizing laboratory medicine terminology , in vitro radioimmunoassay , and pathology . in korea , the work regarding the terminology used in the medical field started in 1977 with the publication of the 1st edition of medical terminology dictionary " english - korean , korean - english medical terminology " , which was revised in 2001 in its fourth edition ( 1 ) , but research into standardizing terminology regarding information exchange has been rare .
yoon et al . tried to standardize and to code laboratory medicine terminology in the 1990 's , but implementation of this terminology into local laboratory systems was unsuccessful .
whereas digitalization and computerization has progressed rapidly in korean medicine , data have not been easily interchangeable because medical information systems were developed independently at individual institutes . to fix this problem ,
medical terminology should be standardized because it is essential in data transmission between health institutes and would maximize the benefits of information technology by decreasing , unnecessary test duplicates , enabling interchangeable electronic medical record ( emr)/electronic health record ( ehr ) , and utilizing the individual health care smart card . among efforts to standardize medical terminology ,
one of the most representative systems in laboratory terminology is the logical observation identifier names and codes ( loinc ) system developed by the regenstrief institute for health care at indiana university in 1994 ( 2 ) .
it provides a standard for data exchange among the laboratories in america , is continuously revised to reflect changes in laboratory tests , and includes most of the laboratory observations .
based on the first year of this study , from december 2004 to may 2005 ( 3 ) , we decided to standardize test name , specimen , units , result description terms , etc and to adopt the six axial structure of loinc that can be used in national public health network . during the second year
, a standard database of concept names for all laboratory terms was developed , including the terms used by tertiary health care institutes and reference laboratories in korea .
test names that either had been deleted or were not currently used in korea were excluded .
it was discussed with the staff in regenstief whether loinc could be used as one of the key terminology sets to be adapted , and we were told that there was no specific obligation in using them .
standard expression was determined by an " english - korean , korean - english medical dictionary " ( 1 ) published by the korean medical association and " the rules for foreign language expression " were legislated by the national institute of the korean language ( 5 ) .
abbreviations frequently used in routine work were selectively adopted after inquiry to the committee or a section of specialists in the relevant field . a program for mapping between loinc and electronic data interchange ( edi ) codes , and a program for translation from english into korean were used . to collect the opinions of experts , a public hearing and a workshop for the clinical pathologists
were held on 28 september 2005 and 14 april 2006 , respectively , and opinions from these meetings were reflected in this work .
we named the korean standard laboratory terminology system the korean logical observation identifier names and codes ( k - loinc ) .
korean concept names for laboratory tests were expressed as combinations of six - axis concept names : components , property , time aspect , system ( specimen ) , scale type , and method type .
the basic concept name table consisted of k - loinc code , k - loinc component , k - loinc property , k - loinc time aspect , k - loinc system , k - loinc scale , k - loinc short name , loinc code , loinc component , loinc property , loinc time aspect , loinc system , loinc scale , loinc short name , edi code , edi test name , umls unique concept identifier ( cui ) code , and umls name for 28,858 test observations ( table 1 , 2 ) . among the 30,740 loinc codes ,
89.6% were adopted and 1,307 were added . a mapping table for the edi codes and umls was also prepared .
synonym tables for concept names , words , and terms using the six axes were prepared to help find concept names with common terms used in the fields .
the final product from the 2nd year of this study is accessible on - line at the homepage of the national health information standard committee ( 7 ) .
during the 1st year 's work , we examined a suitable structure in korea and found that four axes , test name , specimen , method , and scale type were enough to express all laboratory observations .
however , the six - axis concept names of loinc , consisting of components , property , time aspect , system ( specimen ) , scale type , and method type , was adopted in consideration of international data exchange in the future . in the loinc system ,
the method field was specified only when there was a significant difference in the test results or reference intervals . to reflect the special situation of the presence of an independent department in the analysis and reimbursement for radioimmunoassays ( ria ) in korea ,
codes for in vitro radioimmunoassay were duplicated and the method was specified as ria . because terminology for microbiology in the loinc system was quite different from those currently use in korea and edi codes , several inquiries and consultations were conducted with the relevant experts of the korean society of laboratory medicine .
finally , this study decided to adopt the loinc system per se and to make tries to apply into local laboratories by combining concept names .
it was necessary to match k - loinc ( loinc codes adopted in korea ) with edi to facilitate implementation of a standard code at the local hospital and institutes .
several problems , however , arose because the structure and granularity for concepts between the two systems were significantly different .
because edi codes were developed to reimburse laboratory tests fees , it used the same codes for running tests at the same cost , regardless of methods or specimens , which leads to n:1 mapping of the standard codes vs. edi . on the contrary ,
there were edi codes , including several tests as a set , which led to 1:n mapping .
most standard codes for describing results were not matched to edi codes because of the absence of concepts in the edi system .
because this field is growing rapidly , it was suggested that a standing committee be organized to create a consistent naming system for the upcoming tests , which need new test codes and to refine present test names .
the national health information standard committee ( nhisc ) uses umls codes to connect standard health information terminologies in each division . to map k - loinc to umls ,
mapping tables of the loinc database and umls were used . to facilitate the implementation of standard terminology in local laboratories
, it is necessary to have instruments and/or reagent companies provide accurate standard codes for the instruments and reagents they produce , as well as provide mapping tables with korean edi codes for reimbursement .
terminology for laboratory tests is one of the well standardized areas with a report for coding clinical laboratory information in japan as well as loinc and umls in america.(8 ) the loinc system , however , initiated by the civil institute , and umls , provided by the government , were not fully implemented in laboratories and there has been no report of trying these systems in australia or europe . in this respect , nation - wide standardization of health information terminology would be a model when it is successfully implemented and would greatly contribute to the global competitiveness of korea . here ,
we report the korean standard laboratory terminology database for test names , result description terms , and result units covering most of the laboratory tests in korea .
 standardization of medical terminology is essential in data transmission between health care institutes and in maximizing the benefits of information technology . 
 the purpose of this study was to standardize medical terms for laboratory observations . during the second year of the study , a standard database of concept names for laboratory terms that covered those used in tertiary health care institutes and reference laboratories 
 was developed . 
 the laboratory terms in the logical observation identifier names and codes ( loinc ) database were adopted and matched with the electronic data interchange ( edi ) codes in korea . a public hearing and a workshop for clinical pathologists 
 were held to collect the opinions of experts . 
 the korean standard laboratory terminology database containing six axial concept names , components , property , time aspect , system ( specimen ) , scale type , and method type , was established for 29,340 test observations . 
 short names and mapping tables for edi codes and umls were added . 
 synonym tables were prepared to help match concept names to common terms used in the fields . 
 we herein described the korean standard laboratory terminology database for test names , result description terms , and result units encompassing most of the laboratory tests in korea . 
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION