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Extending the LOINC conceptual schema to support standardized assessment instruments
Thomas M White1, Michael J Hauan
1New York State Office of Mental Health, New York, New York, USA.
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA
|October 19, 2002
Summary
Extensions to the Clinical LOINC schema improve the representation and disambiguation of assessment instruments. This enhances the analysis and management of instrument reliability and validity, potentially reducing errors.
Area of Science:
- Health Informatics
- Clinical Data Standards
Background:
- Clinical LOINC (Logical Observation Identifiers, Names, and Codes) is a standard for clinical terminology.
- Existing LOINC schema has limitations in representing assessment instruments and their versions.
- Reliability and validity of assessment instruments are critical for accurate clinical data.
Purpose of the Study:
- To extend the Clinical LOINC semantic schema for assessment instruments.
- To support representation of common assessment types.
- To enable disambiguation of instrument versions and variants, addressing reliability and validity differences.
Main Methods:
- Utilized psychometric theory and survey research frameworks.
- Leveraged the Dialogix tool for modeling assessment instrument attributes.
- Proposed four modifications to the LOINC semantic schema.
- Assessed the feasibility of these extensions within LOINC.
Main Results:
- The existing LOINC schema inadequately supported assessment instrument representation and disambiguation.
- Proposed extensions successfully addressed both objectives.
- Extensions are derived from the Dialogix schema, which already handles these functions.
Conclusions:
- Extended LOINC schema facilitates better use and analysis of assessment instruments.
- Improved instrument management can lead to enhanced detection and management of errors.
- These extensions support the standardization of clinical assessment data.