Table of Contents: 2013 NOVEMBER–DECEMBER No. 395
Schulman J. What's New for 2014 MeSH. NLM Tech Bull. 2013 Nov-Dec;(395):e8.
What's New for 2014 MeSHPlease consult the 2014 online Introduction to MeSH for more details. Lists of new and changed vocabulary are available at these links:
The UNII Project is a collaborative effort between NLM and Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) informatics scientists to include FDA Substance Registration System (SRS) - Unique Ingredient Identifiers (UNIIs) in MeSH. The first part of this project, completed for the 2013 MeSH year, involved updating MeSH Supplemental Concepts (SCRs) with UNII identifiers. The 2014 MeSH release completes the second part and includes 2,900 UNII updates for Descriptor chemicals. In total, there are now 10,837 UNII identifiers in MeSH.
Because many of the MeSH UNII concepts involve pharmaceutical compounds, the range of pharmacological action (PA) classes covered by MeSH was expanded and a new category, "Diagnostic Uses of Chemicals," was added. This effort was coordinated with the UNII project so that MeSH headings could be simultaneously reviewed for UNII and PA assignments. It is hoped that the addition of UNII identifiers and new MeSH PA assignments will improve the utility of the MeSH database as a resource for drug information.
In the Fall of 2013, MeSH finalized the integration of Genetic Home Reference (GHR) disease vocabulary completing a goal of covering more than 95% of all the human diseases and conditions with genetic components in MeSH. Human disease terms from the NIH Office of Rare Diseases and Research (ORDR), Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM), and GHR are now part of MeSH.
By
Jacque-Lynne Schulman
MeSH Section
