Medline and MeSH 1994
The annual regeneration of the Medlars system has taken place. All of the databases that are indeed according to the 1994 MeSH have been adapted to the 1994 MeSH. One effect of the regeneration is that references with an earlier year of publication have now been transferred from the latest Medline file to the file that matches their year of publication.
Organization of files
As of 1994, Medline is organized into six files having the following contents:
Med91 1991-
Med89 1989-90
Med85 1985-88
Med80 1980-84
Med75 1975-79
Med66 1966-74
MeSH - main headings
Every year, MeSH is updated -new terms are added, others are removed or change their appearance. This year, MeSH has been expanded with 716 new terms. Two hundred sixty-three terms have been changed and 44 terms have been deleted. Here, we would like to bring out a few important changes. In the areas of public health, health services research and health care reform, the following new terms can be found:
, AGE DISTRIBUTION
, BLOOD-BORNE PATHOGENS
, DISEASE TRANSMISSION,
PATENT-TO-PROFESSIONAL
, IMMUNIZATION PROGRAMS
, PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY
, DRUG UTILIZATION REVIEW
, REPRODUCTIVE HISTORY
, HEALTH CARE REFORM
, AIR AMBULANCES
, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
, ECONOMICS,
PHARMACEUTICAL
, EFFICIENCY,
ORGANIZATIONAL
, HOSPITAL COSTS
, PEER REVEW, HEALTH CARE
, PEER REVIEW, RESEARCH
''C4 Neoplasms," and especially, "C4.557 Neoplasms by Histologic Type (Non MeSH)" have been revised and their terminology has been adapted to the new International Classification of Diseses -Oncology (ICD-O).
Other areas that have been revised are "receptors," "neuro-anatomy" and "inorganic chemicals."
There is a comp1ete list of all the new terms, including annotations and scope notes, in the printed Medical Subject Headings -Annotated Alphabetic List 1994.
What is most noticeable on first glance in the new MeSH is that all of the terms are now written with capital and lower-case letters - as they are in printouts from Elhill/Medline.
The list of pre-eplosions has been increased with three new terms: HEALTH PERSONNEL, IMMUNE SYSTEM and QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE. This year, neither new subheadings nor new publication types have been introduced.
Geographical terms and country of publication
Political developments, in Eastern Europe especially, require continual revision of certain geographical terms and their placement in the Z tree. For 1994, there are two new MeSH terms reflecting the political changes in the former Czechoslovakia: CZECH REPUBLIC and SLOVAKIA.
The field qualifier ZN, which identifies a journal's country of publication, has been replaced by CY. In all references with EM 9212 or earlier, the ZN number has been replaced by CY, corresponding to the geographical term of the 1992 MeSH. In all references with EM 9301 or later, it has been replaced by CY, corresponding to the geo-graphical term of the 1993 MeSH. Sweden as country of publication no longer has to be searched as z1.542.808.843. (ZN), but as SWEDEN (CY), which is much simpler.
It is also possible to search for references to articles published in some particular geographical region, e.g. Africa, Europe. From 1994, you can search with "country of publication pre-explosions," e.g. EUROPE& (PX). N.B. Don't forget the ampersand (&) after the term.
For the USA as country of publication, note that the old UNITED STATES PL (PX) has been replaced by UNITED STATES (CY) -though the older search possibility will also continue to be valid, parallel to the newer one, throughout 1994. A list of all "place of publication pre-explosions" can be found at the beginning of the printed MeSH-Annotated Alphabetic List 1994. No changes have been made for searching geographic terms as subject. To search for references to articles about a certain country, use MH, e.g. Sweden.
