>Background: HMORN leadership charged several Workgroups to check and describe Virtual Data Warehouse (VDW) data areas, provide observations on data quality across sites, and recommend needed actions. Availability of laboratory (lab) results data in the VDW in a standardized format is desirable, but across HMORN sites, lab content is either incompletely developed or not built at all. Further, there is little consistency across sites with regard to the approach to adding lab content. The work of the VDW Lab Content Area Workgroup (Lab Workgroup) therefore focused on developing a standardized approach to incorporating lab content. We describe development and implementation efforts to create and maintain a standardized lab result content area across HMORN sites.>Methods: The Lab Workgroup identified priorities: class="enumerated" style="list-style-type:decimal">Establishing standardized naming conventions for variables;Determining test results to be initially incorporated;Encouraging site-specific exploration and development of lab information system content as well as lab department contacts;Developing a lab test reference document;Serving as content area experts; andConducting content quality checks.A list of possible tests to incorporate was circulated to HMORN sites. The Lab Workgroup wrote code to generate descriptive data and data checks across sites for glycated hemoglobin (HGBA1C) and serum potassium result content. A lab test metadata table was posted for site data managers to complete.>Results: Incorporation of chemistry tests that were most often requested for research was identified as an initial priority. Microbiology and tumor markers content were other high priority areas. Standardized lab variable naming conventions were determined for the list of initial tests. Results of data checks for HGBA1C and potassium concentration results will focus on describing the extent and quality of these files at sites, as well as identify potential issues to be addressed. Sites were surveyed about the barriers, facilitators, and priority of adding lab content to VDW. Results of all this work as well as an excerpt from the lab test reference document will be presented.>Conclusions: The availability of lab test results information in the VDW in a standardized, extractable format across HMORN sites is a technological advance in data availability and sharing. The work described here will provide important initial insights into the lab content area potential of the HMORN VDW.
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