title: LOINC in prehospital emergency medicine in Germany - experience of the `DIRK´-project.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Treatment of patients picked up by emergency services can be improved by data transfer ahead of arrival. Care given to emergency patients can be assessed and improved through data analysis. Both goals require electronic data transfer from the emergency medical services (EMS) to the hospital information system. Therefore a generic semantic standard is needed.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Objective of this paper is to test the suitability of the international nomenclature Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) to encode the core data-sets for rescue service protocols (MIND 2 and MIND 3). Encoding diagnosis and medication categories using ICD-10 and ATC were also assessed.
  
  
  METHODS
  Protocols were broken down into concepts, assigned to categories, translated and manually mapped to LOINC codes. Each protocol was independently encoded by two healthcare professionals and in case of discrepancies a third expert was consulted to reach a consensus.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Currently 39% of parameters could be mapped to LOINC. Additional use of other coding systems such as International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) for diagnoses and Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System (ATC) for medications increases the rate of 'mappable' parameters to 56%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the coverage is low, mapping has shown that LOINC is suitable to encode concepts of the rescue services. In order to create a generic semantic model to be applied in the field our next step is to request new LOINC codes for the missing concepts.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Edeler
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Majeed
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ahlbrandt
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Stöhr
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Stommel
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Brenck
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thun
authors.affiliation: Dr. Rainer Röhrig, Medical Informatics in Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Rudolf-Buchheim-Str. 7, 35392 Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Röhrig
mesh_terms: D003199:Computer Systems; D019992:Databases as Topic; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005858:Germany; D066275:Health Information Exchange; D006801:Humans; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D039703:Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes; D008498:Medical Record Linkage; D018635:Rescue Work; D009626:Terminology as Topic
keywords: LOINC; Pre-hospital emergency medicine; Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine; electronic pre-hospital patient care report system; intersectoral communication