RxNorm November 2023 Monthly Release

The RxNorm November 2023 monthly release became available on Monday, November 6, 2023. We have removed Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) for this release.

RXNORM DATA CHANGES

Removal of MeSH from RxNorm

As previously announced on April 4, 2023, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) will no longer include MeSH (SAB=MSH) in the RxNorm data files starting with the RxNorm November 6, 2023 monthly release. NLM is removing MeSH from RxNorm to better focus development efforts on clinical drug vocabularies in RxNorm. The RxNorm October 2, 2023 monthly release will be the last RxNorm release to contain MeSH content. 

MeSH and RxNorm content will continue to be available in the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS). The UMLS Metathesaurus MRCONSO file connects MeSH and RxNorm content via a UMLS Concept Unique Identifier (CUI). RxNorm RXCUIs are represented in the CODE field in the MRCONSO file. The following query demonstrates how MeSH and RxNorm are connected in the UMLS Metathesaurus: 

select mc1.cui, mc1.sab, mc1.tty, mc1.code as rxcui, mc1.str, mc2.sab, mc2.scui, mc2.sdui, mc2.sab, mc2.tty, mc2.str 
from mrconso mc1, mrconso mc2 
where mc1.cui = mc2.cui 
and mc1.sab='RXNORM' 
and mc1.tty not in ('TMSY','SY','PSN') 
and mc2.sab='MSH' 
order by mc1.cui; 

More information about MeSH: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html

More information about UMLS: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/index.html