Standardised Pathology Informatics in Australia (SPIA) Guidelines v4.1

This document describes the guidelines around terminology, units, and rendering related to pathology requesting and reporting in Australia. It is intended to improve the efficiency, quality, and integrity of RCPA Standardised Pathology Informatics in Australia (SPIA) terminology and related artefacts and to support laboratory accreditation processes.

It is also intended as a guide for those continuing with the development and implementation of RCPA SPIA Guideline resources across all pathology domains.

Main sections:

· Glossary of terms and acronyms

· Scope and audience

· Interoperability and standardisation requirements

· Terminology: Guiding principles

· Requesting terminology and codes

· Reporting terminology and codes

· Tests not to be combined in reports

· Preferred terms

· Preferred units

· Rendering of numeric results, ranges, units, previous results and flagging

· Harmonised reference intervals

· Safe pathology requesting

· Safe pathology reporting

· Appendix: Useful links, scientific abbreviations and acronyms, references, other suggested reading