Regenstrief Institute has named Marjorie Rallins, DPM, M.S., a nationally recognized leader in standards and informatics, as the new executive director of LOINC®, an international system for health data interoperability.
Dr. Rallins comes from the PCPI® Foundation in Chicago, where she was vice president and chief scientific officer. She started with PCPI when it was a program of the American Medical Association (AMA).
She will begin her new duties with LOINC on Monday, January 11, and will lead the continued development of this system that allows health records to be accurately and efficiently exchanged between health organizations and public health entities around the world.
“Dr. Rallins has proven experience and expertise in data standards, quality measurement, strategic planning and thought leadership,” said Peter Embí, M.D., M.S., president and chief executive officer of Regenstrief Institute. “She is the ideal person to take the leadership mantle of LOINC, guiding it into a new phase of facilitating healthcare interoperability at a crucial time for public health, when the pandemic has highlighted the need for seamless exchange of data.”
“I am thrilled to join the committed and talented teams at LOINC and Regenstrief Institute,” said Dr. Rallins. “Both have reputations as entities with invaluable achievements. I look forward to my new role with the leadership team and to collaborating and joining with the diverse partners, research and operational teams, and culture that make LOINC and Regenstrief global leaders.”
As vice president and chief scientific officer at PCPI, Dr. Rallins led scientific programming and fiscal and operational management. As a membership organization, PCPI focuses on improving health outcomes through the advancement of performance measurement, clinical registries and quality improvement initiatives. She contributed to positioning PCPI as a standalone entity and has been employed with the AMA/PCPI in some capacity since 2005.
Dr. Rallins received her undergraduate degree from Towson University and her podiatric medical degree from the William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine. She was chief resident at Southwest Detroit Hospital and completed her master of science degree at Northwestern University. She practiced as a podiatrist before working as the director of clinical editors for the College of American Pathologists.
LOINC, the acronym for Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes, is used by healthcare systems, health-related organizations, public health officials and others in nearly every country around the globe to uniformly identify medical tests, laboratory results, health observations and more, allowing this data to be accurately collected and exchanged. LOINC was created and is managed by Regenstrief.
With long-term funding support from U.S. federal agencies and other organizations, LOINC is available free of charge.
Swapna Abhyankar, M.D., has been serving as interim director of LOINC since the fall of 2019. She will continue her role as associate director of content development.
About LOINC®
LOINC was created in 1994 at Regenstrief Institute to facilitate interoperability in healthcare. There was a growing trend to send clinical data electronically between healthcare entities, a practice that has now become ubiquitous. Today, it contains almost 95,000 terms for everything from a serum alpha 1 antitrypsin level to a zygomatic arch x-ray report. For each concept, LOINC contains many other rich details, such as synonyms, units of measure, and carefully crafted descriptions.
About Regenstrief Institute
Founded in 1969 in Indianapolis, the Regenstrief Institute is a local, national and global leader dedicated to a world where better information empowers people to end disease and realize true health. A key research partner to Indiana University, Regenstrief and its research scientists are responsible for a growing number of major healthcare innovations and studies. Examples range from the development of global health information technology standards that enable the use and interoperability of electronic health records to improving patient-physician communications, to creating models of care that inform practice and improve the lives of patients around the globe.
Sam Regenstrief, a nationally successful entrepreneur from Connersville, Indiana, founded the institute with the goal of making healthcare more efficient and accessible for everyone. His vision continues to guide the institute’s research mission.
