Musings From The Mezzanine
NLM Musings from the Mezzanine, a blog from NLM Director Dr. Patricia Flatley Brennan, is a platform to share important and timely health information related to the mission of NLM and NIH. Over the past 18 months in particular, the blog has been used in collaboration with leadership across NIH to announce NIH-wide initiatives, approaches and strategies to address the COVID-19 global pandemic. The blog has also become a central channel to communicate new NLM priorities, investments and activities. Since the blog’s inception four years ago, Musings from the Mezzanine has posted every single week – sometimes twice a week – resulting in more than 200 blog posts with over 300,000 views.
Anticipating the Future of Biomedical Communication
Learn about the future of biomedical communication.
Data Science@NLM
Learn about the Data Science @NLM Training Program. This program provides targeted training on data science to NLM staff.
Healthy AI
Learn about NLM’s research in precision health.
Intramural Researcher Profiles
View this profile of Xiaofang Jiang, a researcher at NLM.
View this profile of Lauren Porter, a researcher at NLM.
NLM Welcome Video
Watch this video for an overview of NLM’s mission and resources.
ClinicalTrials.gov Updates
View this video and PowerPoint presentation [PPT, 1.4 MB] to learn about several exciting updates and new features that have been added to ClinicalTrials.gov.
MEDLINE Updates
In FY2019, 956,390 citations were indexed for MEDLINE.
MEDLINE Year-End Processing (YEP) occurred over December 4-5, 2019, and 971,137 citations were modified during this processing.
MeSH Updates
The 2020 MeSH vocabulary was released in November 2019. The new 2020 MeSH vocabulary contains 29,640 descriptors; 294 new descriptors were added and 5 were deleted. No new subheadings were added.
NIH CDE Repository Usability Study Updates
A usability study was conducted for the NIH Common Data Elements (CDE) Repository. Activities included analyzing user needs regarding CDEs and the CDE Repository, conducting usability testing, and reviewing the technical infrastructure. The final report made recommendations about the future of the repository.
NIH Preprint Pilot Updates
On June 9, 2020, NLM launched a pilot project to test the viability of making preprints resulting from NIH-funded research available via PubMed Central (PMC). The primary goal of the NIH Preprint Pilot is to explore approaches to increasing the discoverability of early NIH research results. Following standard NLM practice, a citation for each preprint record in PMC will also be available in PubMed to further increase the discoverability of this content. The pilot will run for a minimum of 12 months. Quarterly updates will be posted to the NLM Technical Bulletin and lessons learned during the pilot will inform future NLM efforts with preprints.
The first phase of the pilot is focused on increasing the discoverability of preprints with NIH support that relate to the current COVID-19 pandemic. NLM is leveraging the iSearch COVID-19 Portfolio tool developed by the NIH Office of Portfolio Analysis to identify preprints reporting on COVID-19 research from eligible preprint servers. As of July 23, nearly 700 preprints meeting these criteria had been identified and made searchable in NLM's databases.
NLM Classification Updates
Beginning with the 2020 summer edition, the NLM Classification has a new look and feel. With this new design comes a new URL: https://classification.nlm.nih.gov/ . The old URL: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/class will automatically be redirected to the new one. The new site functions best in Chrome or Firefox.
The 2020 summer version, published September 30, 2020, encompasses the systematic review of the WD (Disorders of Systemic, Metabolic or Environmental Origin, etc.) and WO (Surgery) and other miscellaneous updates.
For more information about the scope of the 2020 summer edition, see https://classification.nlm.nih.gov/scope.
Contact NLM for further information, questions, or comments.
NLM Grants and Funding: Extramural Programs (EP) Updates
Visit the Grants and Funding: Extramural Programs (EP) page to learn more about grant programs at NLM. See below to learn more about grants and funding at NLM.
Research Support
Grants are available for fundamental and applied research in biomedical informatics and data science. Areas of research interest include: representation, organization and retrieval of biomedical and biological data and images; enhancement of human intellectual capacities through virtual reality, dynamic modeling, artificial intelligence, and machine learning; medical decision-making; linguistic analyses for natural language processing and understanding; informatics topics relevant to public health and informatics for disaster management.
Resource Support
Resource grants are designed to improve the dissemination, management, and use of biomedical knowledge. Resource grants support the development and deployment of knowledge management tools, resources, and services that address identified, unmet needs for a broad audience.
Career Development Support
NLM offers an early career development award to help informatics trainees make the transition to a successful independent research career. A loan repayment program provides for the repayment of educational loan debt of qualified health professionals.
Training Support
To assure an adequate national pool of informatics researchers and health information specialists, training is offered through formal programs and individual fellowships.
All applicants and grantees should register for the Electronic Research Administration (eRA) Commons, where NIH extramural grantee organizations and grantees can receive and transmit information about their grants, including summary statements and progress reports. The ERA Commons is divided into both unrestricted and restricted portions that provide for public and confidential information, respectively. Visit the eRA Commons website for more information and user support.
The NIH Office of Extramural Research (OER) Grants page is the definitive site for finding application and progress report forms, grants news, and policy guidelines for the NIH.
Profiles in Science Updates
Profiles in Science was relaunched in September 2019. Profiles in Science presents the lives and work of innovators in science, medicine, and public health through in-depth research, curation, and digitization of archival collection materials. Read this blog post to learn more about the relaunch.
PubMed Updates
View these links and video to learn about the launch of the new PubMed, which includes several new features:
RxNorm Updates
When the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, the RxNorm team reviewed and revised procedures to consider the inclusion of investigational drugs.
SNOMED Updates
The updated SNOMED CT International Edition and SNOMED CT United States Edition were released in early 2020.
Value Set Authority Center (VSAC) Updates
In May 2020, the Value Set Authority Center (VSAC) published the eCQM annual update for the 2021 reporting period for Eligible Hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (CAH), and the 2021 performance period for Eligible Professionals and Eligible Clinicians.
ClinicalTrials.gov
ClinicalTrials.gov is the world’s largest database of privately and publicly funded clinical studies conducted in the United States and around the world.
(Click the graphic to download the ClinicalTrials.gov capability card.)
Extramural Programs
The Extramural Programs (EP) Division of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) offers grants for research projects and research training in biomedical informatics and data science.
NLM Intramural Programs
NLM's Intramural Research Program conducts research in biomedical informatics and computational biology.
(Click the graphic to download the Intramural Programs capability card.)
MedlinePlus Connect
MedlinePlus Connect is a free service from NLM. This service allows health organizations and health IT providers to link patient portals and electronic health record (EHR) systems to MedlinePlus.
(Click the graphic to download the MedlinePlus Connect capability card.)
PubMed
PubMed is a free database supporting the search and retrieval of biomedical and life sciences literature. It is the most heavily used biomedical literature database in the world.
(Click the graphic to download the PubMed.gov capability card.)
Last Reviewed: November 16, 2020