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Changes to MeSH Terminology

Changes to MeSH Terminology

December 2020

Recent MeSH Changes (and why they matter)

Jill O'Neill, Director of Content, here at NISO tweeted out awareness of these changes:

What's New in MeSH - National Institutes of Health (NIH) https://t.co/jCcIvZ0uBd via @nuzzel

— Jill ONeill (@jillmwo) November 16, 2020

But medical librarian,Tracey Shields, offered a thread about the changes and what they entailed, specifically noting that awareness of these changes aid professionals with "disambiguation and findability, along with how it might impact the Automatic Term Mapping".

Changes to MeSH terminology for 2021 are posted!!! https://t.co/EgEwK1ZCWO

I went looking for something else, saw this page had been updated on 02 Nov (!!). Time to drop everything and look at what's there. You know what that means... #medlibs thread incoming!

— Tracy Shields (@tcshields) November 16, 2020

We've included some useful clips from her thread below:

Lots of new terms surrounding COVID, including some indirect ones, like Anosmia[mh]. Also MeSH terms: COVID-19 Vaccines; COVID-19 Testing; COVID-19 Nucleic Acid Testing; COVID-19 Serological Testing; lots for Coronavirus proteins.

— Tracy Shields (@tcshields) November 16, 2020

Terminology not related to COVID-19 include:

> Digital Technology (hi MeSH, welcome to 2021)
> Disease Hotspot (very pandemic-y)
> Drug Elimination Routes
> Drug Tapering
> Emotional Abuse (under Social Problems... really?)
> Financial Stress

— Tracy Shields (@tcshields) November 16, 2020

and

> Functional Status
> Gender Equity (!!!)
> Gender Role
> Glycemic Control (under Therapeutics)
> Heart Disease Risk Factors
> Hemorrhagic Stroke
> High Reliability Organizations
> HIV Testing (another "how is this new?!")

— Tracy Shields (@tcshields) November 16, 2020

Shields also notes:

There are some preferred term changes that I want to note. (https://t.co/u2fDjB6DTU)

Alaska Natives > Alaskan Natives
C diff: Clostridium difficile > Clostridiodes difficile

Mentally Disabled Persons > Persons with Mental Disabilities

Social Distance > Psychological Distance

— Tracy Shields (@tcshields) November 16, 2020

as well as:

A few more new MeSH terms, potentially loaded:

> Freedom of Movement (contrast with Deportation)
> Freedom of Religion pic.twitter.com/mJCmHVeBjO

— Tracy Shields (@tcshields) November 16, 2020

Follow Tracey on Twitter (@tcshields). The original announcement from the National Library of Medicine may be found here.