Taiwan Unveils 5,050-Entry LOINC Mapping to Set Data Standard for Medical AI

LOINC is an international coding standard for exchanging laboratory results between hospitals. The Department of Health’s Information Center began piloting electronic medical records and LOINC in 2007, and the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control introduced the standard at another 20 medical centers from 2013 to 2016. However, one-to-many mappings between National Health Insurance codes and LOINC, along with inconsistent naming across hospitals, continued to hinder data integration and limited the use of consistent, comparable data in medical AI and precision medicine.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the results on June 10, 2026. The Taiwan Society of Laboratory Medicine brought together 35 hospitals, 154 experts and 12 vendors to consolidate 39,172 codes into 5,050 Taiwan-specific LOINC mappings over five months, covering 98.7% of laboratory test items priced under National Health Insurance. The National Health Insurance Administration will add more submission fields in 2026, starting with pilot submissions from medical centers, before using incentives to expand participation in 2027.