What happens to never-published prerelease codes?

Legacy general-discussion
1

The LOINC prerelease page states: " It is possible that they may not be published in the next, or any, public release."

What happens to LOINC codes that never make it to any release? They won’t have a status. Can they be reused in LOINC, or are they guaranteed never to be used for other concepts?

We (in the Netherlands) will need to support some prerelease concepts, and I need to know whether the LOINC code will be a reliable identifier. Of course, in cases where they don’t make it to any LOINC release, we’ll have to abandon those, but that might take some time.

2

Hi Marc,

We never reuse LOINC codes. In the rare case that codes are published on the pre-release page but never get officially released, they still persist in our internal database and will not be used again.

Thanks,

Swapna

3

Hi Swapna. Do you know how many pre-release LOINC code never made it to the next, or any, publication?

Thanks in advance

Dirk Bakkeren

4

Hi Dirk,

I don’t have an exact number, but over the last five years I would estimate 5-10, and the actual number is probably even lower than that.

Thanks,

Swapna

5