NAHLN Information Technology System
A critical aspect of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) is the effort to standardize data, improve data quality, and increase the speed of reporting laboratory results through electronic data transfer from laboratories across the network.
Standardized data are routed from each Laboratory’s Information Messaging System (LIMS) to Veterinary Services, then the results are directed through the Laboratory Messaging Services (LMS) to integrate into the appropriate database for analysis and reporting purposes.
The NAHLN uses an HL7 message structure and SNOMED (www.ihtsdo.org) and LOINC(www.loinc.org) data standards for messaging test results.
Veterinary Terminology Services at Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine provides a NAHLN Terminology Service (http://vtsl.vetmed.vt.edu/nahln/main.cfm) website to support NAHLN training efforts. The website serves as a resource for NAHLN laboratories to reference specific information on laboratory reporting, messaging implementation, up-to-date message schemas, method object identifiers (OIDs), LOINC and SNOMED codes, and more. It also includes a private discussion forum for terminology issues for NAHLN laboratories.
Quick Guide to Messaging
An overview of the process and the necessary steps to start messaging are provided in the Quick User Guide to HL7 Messaging (69.59 KB).
Questions?
For queries regarding NAHLN messaging, please email the NAHLN IT support group.