Regenstrief taps West Coast Informatics to help run LOINC delivery

Regenstrief Institute has partnered with West Coast Informatics to add technical support for LOINC development, release and FHIR delivery. The deal is meant to make the clinical terminology easier to access for implementers while reducing infrastructure work for Regenstrief.

Why it matters: - LOINC is one of the most widely used clinical terminology standards for laboratory tests, clinical measurements, observations and documents. - The partnership is meant to make LOINC easier to access through modern, machine-readable FHIR services. - Regenstrief can shift more focus to the stewardship and evolution of the standard instead of building and maintaining distribution infrastructure. - Health systems, vendors and regulators are pushing for more FHIR-based terminology access worldwide.

What happened: - Regenstrief Institute announced a strategic partnership with West Coast Informatics on Sept. 17, 2026. - West Coast Informatics will supplement Regenstrief's technical team across LOINC development, release and FHIR delivery. - The first phase centers on delivering LOINC content through Regenstrief's FHIR-based services using TermHub, West Coast Informatics' terminology server platform.

The details: - TermHub's SDO Managed FHIR Deployment offering gives Regenstrief production-ready FHIR terminology services. - The setup removes the need for Regenstrief to build, host and maintain dedicated distribution infrastructure. - Downstream implementers will be able to consume LOINC through standard FHIR APIs. - Regenstrief's adoption is one of the first deployments of TermHub's SDO offering by a major standards organization. - West Coast Informatics said the deployment shows the platform is ready to support standards distribution at scale. - LOINC's value grows when implementers can access and use it in modern systems, Marjorie Rallins, executive director of LOINC and health data standards at Regenstrief, said. - Jesse Efron, chief operating officer of West Coast Informatics, said the company is taking on the operational and infrastructure work needed for FHIR-based delivery. - Regenstrief is also affiliated with Indiana University and was founded in 1969. - Regenstrief develops and maintains LOINC, which is used globally by laboratories, health systems and informatics communities. - West Coast Informatics says TermHub also includes semantic validation and SDO-optimized release workflows. - West Coast Informatics works with vocabularies including LOINC, RxNorm and SNOMED CT.

Between the lines: - The agreement reflects a broader industry shift toward outsourcing the technical plumbing behind standards distribution. - Standards organizations have often needed significant engineering investment and FHIR expertise to publish content in machine-readable formats. - Pairing Regenstrief's authority over LOINC with West Coast Informatics' infrastructure could speed access without changing the standard itself. - The collaboration also suggests standards bodies may increasingly rely on managed services to scale distribution.

What's next: - Regenstrief will use TermHub to distribute LOINC through its FHIR-based services. - The partnership is expected to help Regenstrief direct more resources toward other LOINC priorities. - The companies did not outline a timeline for additional phases beyond the initial content delivery effort. - More information is available in West Coast Informatics' announcement and at Regenstrief Institute.

The bottom line: - The deal is as much about operational scale as terminology content: Regenstrief keeps control of LOINC while West Coast Informatics handles much of the delivery machinery.