NLM® Classification 2010 Edition

[Editor's note: The newly revised edition of the NLM Classification is available online as of April 29, 2010.]

The NLM Classification will be available soon online at //www.nlm.nih.gov/class/. It will incorporate all additions and changes to the schedules and index from April 2009 through March 2010. The PDF version will be updated with 2010 classification data by May 11, 2010.

The WX (Hospitals and Other Health Facilities) and WY (Nursing) were the major areas of focus for the 2010 edition.

Some WX and WY class number captions and notes were revised to better reflect the scope of the number. For example:

• At WX 11, the caption General history of hospitals and the hospital movement was changed to History.
• At WY 150, the caption General works was augmented with Medical-surgical nursing.
• At WY 156, the following note was added: Classify here all oncologic nursing regardless of emphasis.

Table G (geographic breakdown) is newly permitted with some additional WX and WY class numbers.

Class Numbers Added and Canceled

Twenty-two new class numbers were added and two class numbers were canceled.

Class Numbers Added —2010

New Number	Class Name	Former Number in the Index
General Medicine. Health Professions
W 20.55.T7	Translational research	None
Practice of Medicine
WB 55.M6	Mongolian traditional medicine	None
WB 556	Recreation therapy	None
Psychiatry
WM 450.5.A6	Animal assisted therapy	None
WM 450.5.R4	Recreation therapy	None
WM 605	Criminal psychology and psychiatry	None
Radiology. Diagnostic imaging
WN 190	Molecular imaging	None
Pediatrics
WS 210	Chronic disease (General)	WS 200
WS 350.4	Play therapy	WS 350.2
Hospitals and Other Health Facilities
WX 140.1	[Health facility design and construction] General coverage (Not Table G)	WX 140
WX 150.1	[Hospital Administration-General works] General coverage (Not Table G)	WX 150
WX 157.1	[Financial administration. Business management. Cost accounting] General coverage (Not Table G)	WX 157
WX 175	Computerized medical records	WX 173
WX 186	Disaster planning and response	WX 185
WX 216	Transportation of patients. Ambulance service	WX 215
Nursing
WY 16.1	[Nursing as a profession. Peer review] General coverage (Not Table G)	WY 16
WY 88	Nurses' interpersonal relations	WY 87
WY 100.1	[General works on nursing procedures] General coverage (Not Table G)	WY 100
WY 115.1	[Home care services] General coverage (Not Table G)	WY 115
WY 152.2	Chronic disease nursing. Long-term care	WY 152
WY 152.3	Life support care. Terminal care	WY 152
WY 154.2	Emergency nursing	WY 154

Class Numbers Canceled—2010

Canceled Number	Class Name	Now Classed in
Parasitology
QX 195	Cnidaria	Not applicable
Nursing
WY 300	Nursing by country (Table G)	WY 100

Table G (Geographic Notations)

Two geographic cutters were added to the Historical Geographic Locations section of Table G (Geographic Notations)

• GA85—Austria-Hungary
• JO8—Ottoman Empire

Two cross references were added to the main section:

• North Korea see Korea
• South Korea see Korea

Other Changes to the Schedule

Class number captions were also revised in other schedules. For example:

• The header for QU was changed from Biochemistry to Biochemistry. Cell Biology and Genetics to better reflect the content of the schedule.
• At W 62, WM 62, WO 62, WS 105.5.I5, and WU 61, social relations was replaced with interpersonal relations in the caption.
• At QW 551, the caption was changed from Acquired immunity. Artificial immunity to Adaptive immunity to reflect more current usage.
• At QX 50, the caption was changed from Protozoa to Unicellular eukaryota (General or not elsewhere classified) to reflect the reclassification of organisms by MeSH®.
• Instructional notes were added or modified to clarify classification practices as needed, e.g., a note was added to WG 141.5.E2: Classify works on fetal echocardiography in WQ 209.

Changes to the Index

Eighty new index entries were created of which thirty-four are from the 2010 MeSH; the remainder are MeSH terms from previous years. All main index headings are linked to the 2010 vocabulary in the MeSH Browser.

Numerous main index entries and cross references were modified to reflect changes in the MeSH vocabulary. In particular, some major categories of index terms affected by MeSH changes were:

• Category B organisms, e.g., Sarcodina was deleted from the index.
• Category E terms, e.g., Genetic Screening changed to Genetic Testing.
• Specialty terms, e.g., the specialty Chemistry, Analytic was added and the technique term was changed from Chemistry, Analytical to Chemistry Techniques, Analytical. Where possible, a distinction is made between the classification of a specialty term versus a technique, phenomenon, or process term.

All index entries pertaining to the aforementioned schedule additions and changes were modified.

Index entries with Library of Congress T schedule numbers were reviewed for accuracy.

To learn more about the NLM Classification see the Fact Sheet.