[Names-Lab : a model for the standardization of biology message exchanges].

The growing requirements of communication between health partners urges to standardize the language used in laboratories data management systems. Names-Lab is the only semantic reference system allowing to describe synchronously the body of prescription and result messages. Its hierarchical structure allows a simple coding, easily accessible to all biologists without imposing or even requiring a language. Other internationally proposed systems as Loinc and Euclides are similar to Names-Lab in their purposes but are completely different by their content and structure. This prompts the medical and biologic community for a comparison of these tools before setting the choice of an international referencing system.