Health Level Seven (HL7) International and the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. announced on Monday an agreement to create a complementary process to develop and extend comprehensive standards in the healthcare industry. 

“This agreement further solidifies and extends the wonderful relationship HL7 has enjoyed with Regenstrief for many years,” said Bob Dolin, chair of HL7 Board of Directors.“HL7 is committed to working with Regenstrief and other standards bodies to advance the delivery of safe and effective patient care.”

Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) is a universal code system developed by the Regenstrief Institute for identifying laboratory and clinical observations. When used in conjunction with the data exchange standards developed by HL7, LOINC’s universal observation identifiers make it possible to combine test results, measurements, and other observations from many independent sources. Together, they facilitate exchange and pooling of health data for clinical care, research, outcomes management, and other purposes.

“Regenstrief has been a long-standing contributor to the standards developed by HL7, and likewise, LOINC has been enhanced by its adoption in HL7’s standards,” said Daniel Vreeman, associate director of terminology services at the Regenstrief Institute.“With this agreement, we look forward to an even closer collaboration with HL7 that improves the semantic interoperability of health data exchange worldwide.”

[See also: HL7 , Object Management team up for standards work.]

LOINC began in the mid 1990's when Regenstrief investigators, using their decades of experience with electronic medical records, began the Indiana Network for Patient Care, the nation's first citywide health information exchange.

Health Level Seven International is the global authority for healthcare information interoperability and standards with affiliates established in more than 30 countries. HL7’s more than 2,300 members represent approximately 500 corporate members, which include more than 90 percent of the information systems vendors serving healthcare.

HL7’s endeavors are sponsored, in part, by the support of its benefactors: Abbott; Accenture; Allscripts; Booz Allen Hamilton; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Duke Translational Medicine Institute; Epic; European Medicines Agency; the Food and Drug Administration; GE Healthcare Information Technologies; GlaxoSmithKline; Hospital Corporation American (HCA); IBM; Intel Corporation; InterSystems Corporation; Kaiser Permanente; Lockheed Martin; McKesson Provider Technology; Microsoft Corporation; NICTIZ National Healthcare; Novartis; Oracle Corporation; Partners HealthCare System, Inc.; Pfizer, Inc.; Philips Healthcare; Quest Diagnostics Inc.; Siemens Healthcare; Thomson Reuters; the U.S. Department of Defense, Military Health System; and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Numerous HL7 Affiliates have been established around the globe including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Uruguay.

[See also: Regenstrief Institute wins CDC contract, funding for informatics research.]

The Regenstrief Institute is a medical research organization dedicated to improving the quality of healthcare and is the World Health Organization’s first and only Collaborating Center for Medical Informatics. 
 
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