Viewing LOINC Details

This section last updated: 2024-02-29 (2 months ago)

If several similar records are returned after performing a mapping search and additional information is necessary to decide which record is best, right click the record of interest and select the "View Details" right-click actions to see the in-depth details about the LOINC term.

The details are displayed in one of two styles depending upon you network availability. If you are connected to the internet when you start the RELMA the program will display the detail information from the LOINC website. The format of the URL used to view these details is of the form https://loinc.org/10450-5. That is, you just append the LOINC number to the base URL of https://loinc.org. Here's a sample for term 105450-5.

New style detail page:

If internet access is not available when you start the RELMA program, RELMA will fallback to using the old style detail pages. These are explained below.

Old style detail page:

The interpretation of the additional LOINC fields is explained in the LOINC documentation. The additional details should prove useful when mapping your local codes to the LOINC codes. Please note that Part details for the LOINC are provided via links.

There are three levels of LOINC details to view, accessible from the lower left-most button on the details form as well as from the right-click menu.

1. "Simple Display" - Displays the most-commonly used fields during mapping.
2. "Comprehensive Display" - Displays all details of a LOINC.
3. "Custom Display" - Displays only the selected sections of the LOINC details report.

"Custom Display" in the figure below lets you pick which LOINC attributes to view by dividing the attributes into named, selectable sections of the details display. "Reset to Defaults" on that form resets the selected sections to the default set of sections (as displayed by "Simple Display"). The "Preferred LOINC Name for this Display" lets you set which name of the LOINC will be displayed as the title of the page. RELMA saves the selected Custom Display sections on exit, so you will see the same selected sections when you start RELMA again.

Viewing Details of Multiple LOINCs

If you select multiple LOINC codes from the search results and select a "View Details" action, the Previous and Next buttons on the form allow you to examine the details of other records from the display grid. If you click on the Next button, the next record after the current record in the grid is displayed. If you click on the Previous button, the record before the current record is displayed. You can also enter a valid LOINC number or LOINC Part number directly into the text box to view the details for any specific LOINC or LOINC Part code.

Options for Viewing Details

RELMA defaults to retrieving the details page for Simple and Comprehensive LOINC Displays from loinc.org (Custom LOINC details pages, details pages with multiple LOINCs, and Part details pages are always built locally). This default is often faster (and is always up-to-date) as compared to building the LOINC details page locally. You can change this default by using File > User Preferences > Details Pages. The default setting is 'Get from Internet', but you can change it to 'Build Locally' if you need to (for example, when you do not have an Internet connection). (Locally-built LOINC Simple and Comprehensive Display details pages are cached so you pay the price of building the details page locally once per LOINC version.)