IUPAC

To extract, analyse and preserve less accessible information produced during the first decade of development of the IFCC-IUPAC coding system, and specify the needs for information management in the future.To produce a manual describing how the basic principles of the coding system are implemented in actual coding practise.

Work under C-NPU defining and coding properties in laboratory science has been going on since the mid-nineties. The database structure designed in the nineties was intended mainly to support the actual coding process (assembly of elements into coded properties), and the production of text files with specific fonts and formatting, intended for paper based publication.

Terminological information about the elements, their sources and their uses in coded properties has been stored, but frequently in an implicit manner, as part of other information elements, rather than explicitly in the database.

During almost a decade of coding work, principles and rules for the coding practise have crystallised, but have not been systematically filed. They may be extracted from stored material, like advice to users at laboratories, newsletters retiring 'malformed' codes etc., or they may be present as 'silent information' in the coding environment - i.e. in the minds of the people working with the system.

A review of the information present in the system and its environment is suggested, aiming to analyse and extract implicitly stored data and register 'silent knowledge'. The objective is to preserve the information, to render it accessible for future developers and users, and to specify the needs for structured information management in the future.

> project announcement published in Chem. Int. Mar-Apr 2007, p. 19

Nov 2009 - Implicit information in the original database concerning e.g. terminological sources has been extracted. The Danish LabTerm database at www.labterm.dk is at present holding an updated version of the NPU terminology with explicit representation of these data. (The international part of the terminology is awaiting transferral to a future database managed by International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC))

The information structure of the terminology has been reworked. A logical model for a bilingual NPU database has been described. This model was implemented in the Danish NPU database implemented in 2008. It has proved a satisfactory basis for full scale management of the NPU terminology, including versioning. The Danish logical model is available in English [see NPU_logical_model_v_1.2.pdf], and it is suggested that it be adapted to serve as the logical model for the future IFCC database.

Principles and guidelines for the management and use of the NPU terminology have been collected from various sources, including ‘silent information’ in the working environment of the terminology. A report will be published in 2010 as the final delivery of the project.