It's a new year and that means a new edition of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), the controlled vocabulary maintained by the National Library of Medicine. MeSH was created for indexing (and searching) the MEDLINE database and the annual updates are designed to reflect the current state of the biomedical literature. This year 1251 new concepts were added, 93 concepts were replaced with revised terminology, and 20 concepts were eliminated from the vocabulary.
While you might assume that the new and updated headings represent the very latest concepts in science and medicine, this isn't always the case. Each year I find myself mystified, and amused, as I peruse the additions.
To help illustrate this point, I decided to see how many new 2003 headings could be used in a single sentence. Can you guess how many of the following words are included in this year's list?
Whistleblowing friends of gift giving, pregnant, women lawyers trust electronic mail for information dissemination.
ANSWER: all of the words (except "of" and "for") are new MeSH headings for 2003. Click here to see these headings listed individually.
This is also the year that NLM added Ethics, Business to the vocabulary, at a time when that concept seems positively quaint.
Among the more "timely" additions are:
- Computers, Handheld
- Diet, Mediterranean
- Fetal Research
- Mass Immunization
- Shaken Baby Syndrome
Since it takes some time for concepts to filter in to the mainstream literature, it's clear that MeSH is not the source for identifying cutting edge terminology. It's anyone's guess how long it might take before the following (from the 2nd annual "Year in Ideas" issue of the New York Times Magazine, 12/15/02) make the list:
- Genetically Modified Saliva
- Gross-Out Health Warnings
- Remote Controlled Rats
- Umbilicoplasty
- Video Pill
- Virtual Reality Therapy
Click here to take the 2003 MeSH Challenge.
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