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2010 MARCH–APRIL No. 373
March 19, 2010 [posted]

Unified Medical Language System® (UMLS®) News

2010AA Release

The 2010AA Release of the UMLS Knowledge Sources will be available in May 2010. This is a new release cycle where the AA Release will occur in May rather than April, effective 2010 forward.

2010AA Semantic Network
Three semantic types in the Organism hierarchy will no longer be used: Invertebrate, Rickettsia or Chlamydia, and Alga.

Semantic types assigned to Metathesaurus concepts will be replaced as shown below. These changes will be documented in the UMLS Reference Manual and the 2010AA Release Notes.

Replaced semantic type Replaced-by semantic type
Invertebrate     Eukaryote*
Rickettsia or Chlamydia Bacterium**
Alga***            Either: Plant** OR Eukaryote**

*New semantic type.
**Existing semantic type.
***Reassigned to reflect current taxonomy.

SNOMED CT®

The January 2010 International Release of SNOMED CT is available for download. Note that the file names and directory structure have changed, and the International Release is now distributed as a single zipped file that includes the resources previously distributed in the "Essential" and "Optional" files. This terminology will also be included in the Metathesaurus format in the 2010AA Release of the UMLS Knowledge Sources.

The January 2010 Technology Preview is available for download. The Technology Preview is a zipped file that contains two alternate versions (RF1 and RF2) of the January 2010 International Release, and is designed to prepare SNOMED CT users for the introduction of the enhanced "RF2" release file format in future International Releases.

RxNorm

RxNorm users have two new ways to learn about current and upcoming releases, significant changes to the data, and general information about RxNorm.

Webcasts

The first two UMLS Webcasts of 2010 have been scheduled. The dates and topics are:

Call for Suggestions
The National Library of Medicine® (NLM®) welcomes your suggestions for UMLS topics and expert speakers for the 2010 Webcast schedule.

Throughout the year, NLM offers interactive Webcasts hosted by UMLS staff members. The UMLS Webcasts give users opportunities to learn about the diverse products that make up the UMLS. Each Webcast is a 20-30 minute presentation, followed by a question-and-answer session. They cover topics from introductory material such as "Getting started with the 2007AC UMLS DVD" to highly technical material such as "Using the UMLS sample data in MS Access." You can view previous Webcasts on the Webcasts homepage.

Suggestions for topics and speakers may be e-mailed to NLM Customer Service with the subject “UMLS Webcast Suggestions.”

2009 Licensee Annual Report

The deadline for the 2009 Annual Report was January 31, 2010. If you did not submit a report, you will need to re-accept the Metathesaurus license agreement and submit a new license request form to access the UMLS Resources (UMLSKS and file Downloads).

2009AB Source Release Documentation

UMLS Source documentation pages for the 2009AB Release are now available.

By Victoria Wilder
MEDLARS Management Section

Wilder V. Unified Medical Language System® (UMLS®) News. NLM Tech Bull. 2010 Mar-Apr;(373):e6.

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