Guide
LOINC for lab results: normalisation in Australia
LOINC gives a lab test one shared name and code, so the same measurement can be recognised across laboratories. This guide explains what it does, where it stops, and what normalisation means for Australian results.
By Benjamin Novakovic, CTO and Co-founderLinkedInPublished
What LOINC is
LOINC (Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes) is a standard for identifying health measurements, observations and documents. It is developed by the Regenstrief Institute and is free to use, under a licence you should read at loinc.org before you build on it.
Each laboratory term is built from parts that describe what was measured: the component, the kind of property, the time aspect, the system (specimen), the scale and, where relevant, the method. Two systems that use the same LOINC code are describing the same measurement.
Why results need normalising
Laboratories use their own local test codes and names. They also differ in units and in how they spell them. If you store results exactly as received, comparing one client's results over time, or across labs, means reconciling names and units yourself.
A LOINC code answers the question of which measurement this is. It does not by itself make two values comparable: the unit and the reference range still matter.
LOINC in the Australian context
The National Clinical Terminology Service provides access to LOINC alongside SNOMED CT-AU and the Australian Medicines Terminology. Australian pathology also has the RCPA's Standardised Pathology Informatics in Australia (SPIA) terminology reference set and information model, aimed at standardising how pathology is recorded and communicated.
In practice, that means an Australian lab result can arrive with a local code, and any LOINC mapping is work someone has to do and keep current. Check each lab's own documentation rather than assuming a code is present.
What Eirly Health does
This section describes Eirly Health, not the standard. Inside Eirly Health, incoming lab results are mapped to one biomarker catalogue using LOINC codes where a lab sends them, plus each lab's own local codes. The API returns each biomarker with a consistent identity across labs; it does not return LOINC codes to you. Every biomarker keeps the lab's own value, unit and ranges, and also carries a canonical value in one agreed unit, so results from different labs can be compared. The lab's own report text is included, so reports with no biomarkers still come through whole.
See the lab results API for a worked example, or the pathology API for ordering.
A short checklist for your own mapping
- Keep the lab's original value, unit and range next to any converted value.
- Map to LOINC at the biomarker level where the lab supplies a code, and fall back on the lab's own codes and record which mapping version you used.
- Treat unit conversion as separate from code mapping, and convert only within one kind of unit.
- Keep the lab's report text, because some results have no individual biomarkers.
Sources
Facts about standards on this page come from these sources, checked 13 October 2026. Standards are revised, so confirm the current edition before you build.
- LOINC from Regenstrief Institute. Definition, structure and licence. The loinc.org pages could not be fetched automatically when this guide was checked, so confirm the licence terms there
- National Clinical Terminology Service: pathology. LOINC, SNOMED CT-AU and the RCPA SPIA reference set in Australia
Keep reading
- HL7 for pathology in Australia
HL7 v2 messaging, AS 4700.2 and where a REST API fits.
- Pathology e-requesting in Australia
How electronic requests work between practice software and labs, and how Eirly Health differs.
Build on the Eirly Health API.
Start in the staging environment with its own keys, then talk to us about production access. Pricing is on request.