Exam type
The kind of imaging study an exam is: modality, body part, technique, and contrast, taken together. Today OIDM identifies an exam type by a LOINC code carried on the exam header, for example 72133-2 for CT Abdomen and Pelvis Without Contrast.1
Exam type does more work than labelling. It bounds what a finding model should cover: “the scope of a finding model should match what’s assessable on a given exam type, not broader.”2 It supplies the fallback body region when a finding names no anatomic structure, and it supplies laterality when the exam itself is sided.3
The stated goal is a first-class exam-type artifact rather than a bare code. The earliest written form asks for “a companion for exam types based on LOINC/RadLex Playbook exam definitions that specify all included body parts for the exam.”4 The most developed written design sits in the terminology tool’s roadmap, which makes the LOINC/RSNA Radiology Playbook first-class in a default radiology profile and plans Playbook-weighted ranking for orderable queries.5
Synonyms and near-synonyms
- Study type, procedure, and orderable name the same thing from ordering, performing, and terminology points of view.
- Exam description is the free-text label, not the coded type; viewers map long descriptions to short display names.
- Modality is one axis of an exam type, not the whole of it.
- Protocol is how the exam is acquired, a level below the exam type.
Identifier form
A LOINC code today. Legacy RPID Playbook identifiers are recognized in the planned design but not in current data.
Where it is used
Exam types overview, Existing building blocks, and Exam Finding List.
Conflicts
No exam-type artifact exists. There is no published curated LOINC list, no exam-to-body-parts mapping, and no code that parses modality or body-part axes, even though three separate documents across three repositories describe the same goal. The area is documented as goals plus existing building blocks; see Exam types.