[Press release] NLM Releases RxClass Drug Class Application. NLM Technical Bulletin. 2014 Sep–Oct

NLM Releases RxClass Drug Class Application. NLM Technical Bulletin. 2014 Sep–Oct.

From the 22 October 2014 press release

RxClass is a new application from researchers in the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications (LHNCBC) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). RxClass allows users to search and browse drug classes and their RxNorm drug members through a simple Web interface (see Figure 1). Unlike RxNav, a related application from NLM LHNCBC which focuses on browsing and searching individual RxNorm drugs, RxClass provides a class-centric view of the drug information in RxNorm.

Figure 1: RxClass Homepage.

Drug Class Sources
RxClass includes drug classes from the following data sources:

• ATC – The Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) drug classification is a resource developed for pharmacoepidemiology purposes by the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology.
• MeSH – The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), developed by NLM, provides a rich description of pharmacological actions for the purpose of indexing and retrieval of biomedical articles.
• NDFRT – The National Drug File-Reference Terminology (NDFRT), developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), provides clinical information about drugs, such as therapeutic intent and mechanism of action.RxClass includes six sets ofNDFRT drug classes:
  1. Established Pharmacologic Classes (EPC)
  2. Chemical Structure (Chem)
  3. Disease
  4. Mechanism of Action (MoA)
  5. Physiologic Effect (PE)
  6. Pharmacokinetics (PK)

Drug Class Relationship Sources
RxClass includes five sources which assert relationships between drugs and drug classes from ATC, MeSH, and NDFRT:

1. ATC – provides relationships between ATC drugs and ATC drug classes.
2. MeSH – provides relationships between MeSH drugs and MeSH pharmacologic actions.
3. DailyMed – provides relationships between substances in DailyMed Structured Product Labels (SPLs) and NDFRT EPC, Chem, MoA, and PE classes.
4. NDFRT – provides relationships between NDFRT drug concepts and NDFRT Chem, Disease, MoA, PE, and PK classes.
5. FDA SPL – provides relationships between NDFRT drug concepts mapped to DailyMed SPL substances and NDFRT EPC, Chem, MoA, and PE classes.

Drug Source
RxClass includes drugs from the sources mentioned above, which are mapped to ingredients (IN), precise ingredients (PIN), and multiple ingredients (MIN) in RxNorm. RxNorm is a normalized naming system for generic and branded drugs developed by NLM to allow computer systems in hospitals, pharmacies, and other organizations to communicate drug-related information efficiently and unambiguously.

Browse Drug Classes
RxClass provides a simple tree browser for navigating through drug class hierarchies. You can click on the orange arrow next to a class to reveal its subclasses in the tree. Clicking on the name of a drug class populates the results area under the search box with the members of that class, if applicable, and the name, source identifier, class type, and contexts for that class (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: RxClass Class Browser. Navigate drug classes by clicking the arrows or class names.

Search by Drug Class/RxNorm Drug
RxClass also provides access to drug classes and their RxNorm drug members through a simple search box (see Figure 3). You can search RxClass by:

1. Drug class name or source identifier
2. RxNorm drug name or RxNorm identifier (RXCUI)

For drug classes and RxNorm drugs in multiple contexts, RxClass presents all of the contexts, allowing you to select the desired drug class context to populate the results area.

Figure 3: Search RxClass by drug class or RxNorm drug name.

Results Display
When browsing or searching RxClass, the results display is populated with the drug class you selected and the RxNorm drugs that belong to the class (see Figure 4). For each RxNorm drug, RxClass displays the:

• Type (RxNorm term type)
• RXCUI
• RxNorm Name
• Source ID (Unique identifier from drug class source)
• Source Name (Name from drug class source)
• Relation (Relationship between the drug and the selected drug class (direct or indirect))
• All classes (All drug classes of which this drug is also a member)

Figure 4: RxClass results display: Shows RxNorm and drug class source data for your results.

Application Programming Interface (API)
Behind the RxClass Web application is a set of API functions. The RxClass API can be used independently for integrating drug class information into programs.

See the RxClass Overview and RxClass FAQ for more information about browsing and searching drug classes on RxClass. An RxClass turorial is forthcoming.

For questions, comments or feedback about these resources, please contact us at rxnavinfo@list.nih.gov.

By Patrick McLaughlin
MEDLARS Management Section

Recent additions to the NLM Drug Information Portal include clinical experience with drugs and dietary supplements

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the NLM-TOX-ENVIRO-HEALTH-L Digest – 2 Oct 2014 to 7 Oct 2014 (#2014-19)

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) Drug Information Portal (http://druginfo.nlm.nih.gov) is a free web resource that provides an informative, user–friendly gateway to current drug information for over 53,000 substances. The Portal links to sources from the NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies such as the U.S. FDA.

Current information regarding consumer health, clinical trials, AIDS–related drug information, MeSH® pharmacological actions, PubMed® biomedical literature, and physical properties and structure is easily retrieved by searching a drug name. A varied selection of focused topics in medicine and drug–related information is also available from displayed subject headings.

The Drug Portal retrieves by the generic or trade name of a drug or its category of usage.  Records provide a description of how the drug is used, its chemical structure and nomenclature, and include up to 20 Resource Locators which link to more information in other selected resources.   Recent additions to these Locators include clinical experience with drugs in PubMed Health (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth), substances reviewed in NLM LiverTox (http://livertox.nih.gov/), information from the Dietary Supplement Label Database (http://dsld.nlm.nih.gov/dsld/), and drug images in the Pillbox beta (http://pillbox.nlm.nih.gov/) database.

Data in the Drug Information Portal is updated daily, and is also available on mobile devices.

More information can be found at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/druginfoportalfs.html

Related articles

• NLM Technical Bulletin, Sep-Oct 2014, NLM Resource Update: Drug Information Portal
• Recent additions to the NLM Drug Information Portal include clinical experience with drugs and dietrary supplement information

National Library of Medicine (NLM) Drug Information Portal is now available for mobile devices

Now one can get summary and detailed drug information on the go from reputable resources

From a recent email rec’d from the US National Library of Medicine

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) Drug Information Portal is now available for mobile devices.http://druginfo.nlm.nih.gov/m.drugportal

This mobile optimized web site covers over 32,000 drugs and provides descriptions, drug names, pharmaceutical categories, and structural diagrams.  Each record also features information links to 19 other resources including NLM PubMed, NLM LactMed, and Drugs@FDA.  The mobile version of a resource is used when available.

Smart Phones accessing the main Drug Portal site will be taken the mobile site.

The Drug Information Portal (http://druginfo.nlm.nih.gov)  is a free Web resource from the NLM that provides an informative, user friendly entry-way to current drug information for over 32,000 drugs. Links to sources span the breadth of the NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies. Current information regarding consumer health, clinical trials, AIDS–related drug information, MeSH pharmacological actions, PubMed biomedical literature, and physical properties and structure is easily retrieved by searching on a drug name. A varied selection of focused topics in medicine and drug–related information is also available from displayed subject headings.

For a full list of available apps and mobile websites, visit our NLM Gallery of Mobile Apps and Sites at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mobile/

Related articles

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• Haz-Map (occupational health database) redesigned for web and mobile versions (jflahiff.wordpress.com)
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• [Infographic] Making Patient Experience a Priority & Link to Other Infogaphics by the Author (jflahiff.wordpress.com)

Haz-Map (occupational health database) redesigned for web and mobile versions

 

From a recent email from NLM (US National Library of Medicine)

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) Division of Specialized Information Services (SIS) has released redesigned web and mobile versions of Haz-Map (http://hazmap.nlm.nih.gov/ ). The new design adapts to web browsers on desktop computers, laptops, and tablets, as well as mobile browsers on smart phones, such as iPhones, Android and Blackberry phones.

Haz-Map is an occupational health database designed for health and safety professionals and for consumers seeking information about the health effects of exposure to chemicals and biologicals at work.  Haz-Map links jobs and hazardous tasks with occupational diseases and their symptoms. It currently covers over 5997 chemical and biological agents and 235 occupational diseases.

More information can be found at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/hazmap.html

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National Library of Medicine Launches YouTube Channel

From the announcment

New Outlet Will Allow Access to Lectures, Training, Special Events and Other Video Content

 

The National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest medical library and a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is pleased to announce the launch of its new YouTube channel, at http://www.youtube.com/nlmnih.

YouTube is a free video-sharing Web site, created in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos. Unregistered users may watch videos, and registered users may upload an unlimited number of videos.

The NLM YouTube channel will post videos of database training, NLM exhibitions (such as an overview of the new Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness), public service announcements, lectures and more.  Interested parties can subscribe to be notified whenever new content is posted on the NLM channel. The NLM site also features links to NIH YouTube channels and other federal health resources.

Although figures for the number of YouTube users worldwide vary, most studies list it as the third most popular Web site, following Facebook and Google. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and now operates as a subsidiary of Google.

 

Reminder: NLM Gateway Changing

Image via Wikipedia

From NLM Technical Bulletin, November 23, 2011 [posted]

Reminder: NLM Gateway Changing

On December 1, 2011, the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications (LHNCBC) will complete the transition of the NLM® Gateway to the new LHNCBC pilot project. The new site will retain the Web address of the former NLM Gateway. It will have two databases: Meeting Abstracts and Health Services Research Projects in Progress (HSRProj). HSRProj also remains available via a separate search engine through the portal HSR Information Central.

The Meeting Abstracts database contains abstracts from HIV/AIDS, Health Services Research, and Space Life Sciences meetings and conferences. The final update to the Meeting Abstracts database is the addition of the abstracts from the 2010 18th International AIDS Conference which will be completed in December 2011. After this addition, no new meeting abstract data will be loaded.

For additional information on the transition to the pilot project, see the article NLM Gateway Transitioning to New Pilot Project Site.

========

May 27, 2011 [posted]

NLM Gateway Transitioning to New Pilot Project Site

On December 1, 2011, the NLM® Gateway will transition to a new pilot project from the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications (LHNCBC). The current version of the NLM Gateway provides search access across multiple databases; however, all but one of these databases is available from other NLM sources, and most users of those databases search them directly and do not use the NLM Gateway. Only one database, Meeting Abstracts, is uniquely located on the Gateway system. Although NLM has invested in and supported the NLM Gateway for eleven years, based on current budget limitations and the results of evaluations of the use of NLM Gateway, the Library has recently decided to discontinue this service, as currently configured, and transition to a new pilot project site.

The new site will focus on two databases: Meeting Abstracts and Health Services Research Projects in Progress (HSRProj). A forthcoming NLM Technical Bulletin will provide more information on this new service from the LHNCBC. Once the new pilot system is available in December, the current Gateway URL will redirect any visitors to the new Web site. The Meeting Abstracts database will still be unique to this site, while HSRProj will continue to be accessible from its home site.

The Meeting Abstracts database contains selected abstracts from meetings and conferences in the subject areas of AIDS, Health Services Research, and Space Life Sciences. The last update to the Meeting Abstracts Database is anticipated to be the addition of the 2010 18th International AIDS Conference, which is expected to be loaded in the fall of 2011. After this addition, the Meeting Abstracts database will still be accessible, but no new data will be loaded.

All of the other resources currently accessed through the NLM Gateway will be available through their individual sites (see Table 1). The home sites for these systems are listed on the NLM Databases & Electronic Resources page. This directory of resources is easily located by clicking on the “All NLM Databases” link in the Databases column on theNLM homepage.

Table 1: The NLM Resources, and homepage URLs, that will no longer be available through the NLM Gateway.

NLM Resources Formerly on the NLM Gateway	URL
Bookshelf	http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books
Chemical Carcinogenesis Research Information System (CCRIS)	http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?CCRIS
ClinicalTrials.gov	http://clinicaltrials.gov/
Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology Database (DART)	http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?DARTETIC
Directory of Health Organizations (DIRLINE®)	http://dirline.nlm.nih.gov/
Genetic Toxicology Data Bank (GENE-TOX)	http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?GENETOX
Genetics Home Reference	http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)	http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?HSDB
Household Products Database	http://hpd.nlm.nih.gov/
Images from the History of Medicine	http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/ihm/index.html
Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS)	http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?IRIS
International Toxicity Estimates for Risk (ITER)	http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?iter
MEDLINE®/PubMed®	http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/
MedlinePlus®	http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/
NLM Catalog	http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog
Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM)	http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim
Profiles in Science®	http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/
TOXLINE® Subset	http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?TOXLINE

If you are accustomed to the NLM Gateway cross file searching function you may want to try using the cross database features provided by TOXNET® and by the NCBI Entrez system.

The search box on the TOXNET homepage offers a cross database search function for the databases in the Toxicology Data Network (see Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1: TOXNET homepage with “Search All Databases” feature.

Figure 2: TOXNET Search All Databases Results Page.

The NCBI global query feature on the NCBI homepage provides a cross database search feature for all of the Entrez databases (see Figures 3 and 4). Selecting “All Databases” in the search box will return a summary search page identifying possible results across all of the NCBI Entrez databases, including PubMed, PubMed Central, BookShelf, NLM Catalog, and the genetic and protein databases such as Gene, OMIM, BLAST, dbGaP, and others.

You can simply bookmark the Web page http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gquery to access the global query search feature. However, going to the NCBI homepage may be the easier way to access this function; the NCBI logo on the top left corner of any Entrez-based system links to the NCBI homepage.

Figure 3: NCBI homepage and “All Databases” option in the search box.

Figure 4: Entrez global query search results page.

By David Gillikin
Bibliographic Services Division

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“Show Off Your Apps” Winners of the NLM software development challenge

From the NLM (National Library of Medicine) Web page

Show Off Your Apps Winners And Honorable Mentions

 

The National Library of Medicine (NLM), wishes to congratulate the five winning entries in the Library’s software development challenge, “Show off Your Apps: Innovative Uses of NLM Information.” In addition, we thank all Entrants for participating in the Library’s first software development challenge!

 

Winners

 

GLAD4U

GLAD4U (Gene List Automatically Derived For You) is a new, free web-based gene retrieval and prioritization tool, which takes advantage of the NCBI’s Entrez Programming Utilities (E-utilities). Upon the submission of a query, GLAD4U retrieves the corresponding publications with eSearch before using Pubmed ID-Entrez Gene ID mapping tables provided by the NCBI to create a list of genes. A statistics-based prioritization algorithm ranks those genes into a list that is output to the user, usually within less than a minute. The GLAD4U user interface accepts any valid queries for PubMed, and its output page displays the ranked gene list and information associated with each gene, chronologically-ordered supporting publications, along with a summary of the run and links for file exports and for further functional enrichment analyses.

 

iAnatomy

Learning anatomy interactively with a touchscreen device is  dynamic and engaging. Having it as an app, makes the information available anywhere, anytime. iAnatomy is an exciting electronic anatomy atlas for iPhone/iPod touch. The images are interactive and zoomable. If a label is touched, the name of the structure is shown.  Images span from the face to the pelvis. The face and neck images and the female pelvis images are reconstructed from data from the National Library of Medicine’s Visible Human Project. iAnatomy is designed to stand on its own and does not require an ongoing internet connection. Learning is reinforced with multiple quiz modes. Latin medical terminology is also included as an option for international use.

 

KNALIJ

The KNALIJ web application addresses the challenges and opportunities posed by ‘big data’ with a new generation of information visualization tools. It offers researchers, students and health consumers alike a technology platform with capabilities to rapidly discover and gain insights from the copious amounts of information being made available from the National Libraries of Medicine (NLM), through its data repositories such as PubMed. KNALIJ recognizes the ‘connections’ linking bio-medical and life sciences research and researchers around the world, and visualizes those linkages. This makes them clear, intuitive, and even playful by providing interactive ‘information communities’ for exploration, analysis, and education.

 

NLMplus

NLMplus is an innovative semantic search and discovery application developed by WebLib LLC, a small business in Maryland. NLMplus provides enhanced access to the vast collection of health and biomedical information and services made available by the world’s largest medical library, the National Library of Medicine (NLM).

 

Quertle

Quertle is an innovative website for searching and investigating the biomedical literature. Quertle uses advanced linguistic methods to find the most relevant documents instead of traditional keyword searching, which often returns an overwhelming list of uninformative articles. Quertle is geared to active life science professionals – both researchers and health care providers – and saves them considerable time and effort in finding the literature they need.  Quertle, available on the web using any browser, simultaneously searches multiple sources of life science literature, including MEDLINE.

 

Honorable Mentions

 

BioDigital Human Platform

The BioDigital Human Platform simplifies the understanding of health topics by visualizing anatomy, conditions and treatments. Similar to how geo-browsers such as Google Earth serve as the basis for thousands of location based applications, the BioDigital Human Platform will open up entirely new ways to augment healthcare applications. From the visual representation of concepts found on health portals, to step-by-step virtual guidance for surgical planning, to EHR integration so patients can finally understand their diagnosis, the BioDigital Human Platform will meet the learning demands of 21st century medicine.

 

DailyMedPlus

DailyMedPlus is an online application providing integrated access to pharmaceutical information available from various databases provided by the National Library of Medicine (NLM).  DailyMedPlus offers a high-performance unified search engine providing ranked, highlighted and full-text search results for patients and healthcare professionals who seek updated prescribing information.  As the only product of its kind, the application supports searching NLM databases for pharmaceutical products using trade and generic names, medical conditions, indications, contra-indications, side-effects, and also allows for the searching of these products by their physical characteristics (“red round”), providing image results in an in line intuitive layout.  Users benefit from comprehensive search results of more than 90,000 products displayed in over 26,000 organized and digitally curated monographs designed for browsing on a wide variety of desktop and mobile platforms.

 

Drug Diary

Drug Diary is an iOS (iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad) application that allows users to quickly build an inventory of prescribed and OTC medications they are currently taking or have taken in the past along with information on the associated prescribers and pharmacies.  From there, they are able to take notes outlining their experiences with these medications and generate reports to share with care providers.  Data entry is made quick and easy through the use of a locally cached copy of the NLM’s RxTerms dataset and intelligent data entry screens that require little to no typing.  The app leverages the data present in RxTerms to allow one tap access to another NLM source, MedLine Plus, which is a web portal that provides detailed information on the medications in the user’s library.

 

Molecules

Molecules is a 3-D molecular modeling application for Apple’s iOS devices, including the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.  It pushes the limits of mobile graphics processors by using advanced techniques to make realistic renderings of molecular models.  A touch-based interface allows for intuitive manipulation of these structures, so that they can be viewed from any angle and at any scale. While originally designed for researchers to view and present biomolecule structures on the go, the most popular use of Molecules has proven to be in education.  Chemistry teachers are using this application to explain common molecular structures to their students, and biology professors are demonstrating the form and function of biomolecules.  Many students already have iOS devices of their own, so they are able to make the lesson more personal by following along on their own iPhone or iPad.  The popularity of this approach is seen in the over 1.7 million downloads of this application to date.

 

ORKOV

Orkov is a Greek term for Hippocratic Oath that medical professionals, especially, physicians take all over the world. Orkov, an iPhone App for iOS 5 platform as well as for Android OS is a productivity smart phone application for hundreds of thousands of medical researchers who are the end users of PubMed.gov data all over the world.  Orkov empowers many researchers to search and browse research abstracts and full text research articles from the repository of PubMed.gov’s over 5,000+ research journals.  Orkov utilizes publicly available web service interface of PubMed.gov.  Majority of the features of PubMed.gov are wrapped into a powerful iPhone/Andorid App that is easy to use and navigate.

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Online Medical Advice Can Be a Prescription for Fear

Online Medical Advice Can Be a Prescription for Fear

From the Resource Shelf news item of February 7, 2011 17:04

Online Medical Advice Can Be a Prescription for Fear

If you’re looking for the name of a new pill to “ask your doctor about,” as the ads say, the Mayo Clinic Health Information site is not the place for you. If you’re shopping for a newly branded disorder that might account for your general feeling of unease, Mayo is not for you either. But if you want workaday, can-do health information in a nonprofit environment, plug your symptoms into Mayo’s Symptom Checker. What you’ll get is: No hysteria. No drug peddling. Good medicine. Good ideas.

This is very, very rare on the medical Web, which is dominated by an enormous and powerful site whose name — oh, what the hay, it’s WebMD — has become a panicky byword among laysurfers for “hypochondria time suck.” In more whistle-blowing quarters, WebMD is synonymous with Big Pharma Shilling. A February 2010 investigation into WebMD’s relationship with drug maker Eli Lilly by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa confirmed the suspicions of longtime WebMD users. With the site’s (admitted) connections to pharmaceutical and other companies, WebMD has become permeated with pseudomedicine and subtle misinformation.

Because of the way WebMD frames health information commercially, using the meretricious voice of a pharmaceutical rep, I now recommend that anyone except advertising executives whose job entails monitoring product placement actually block WebMD. It’s not only a waste of time, but it’s also a disorder in and of itself — one that preys on the fear and vulnerability of its users to sell them half-truths and, eventually, pills.

Source:  New York Times

Shirl’s note:  You can’t go wrong with MedlinePlus, from the National Library of Medicine. Every site linked there has been vetted by a reliable professional.

Editor Flahiff’s note: You also cannot go wrong with these resources (via a Consumer Health Library Guide

Dietary Supplements Labels Database

Information about ingredients in more than three thousand selected brands of dietary supplements. It enables users to determine what ingredients are in specific brands and to compare ingredients in different brands. Information is also provided on the health benefits claimed by manufacturers. These claims by manufacturers have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Check out the Help section for tips on how to browse and search this site.

Drug Digest

This noncommercial consumer health and drug information site provides information about drugs and treatment options to be discussed with your primary health care provider or a pharmacist.  Information about over 1,500 drugs as well as common herbs and supplements. The check interactions tab (potential interactions between drugs)  and conditions/treatments area provide easy-to-read overviews. Information provided by Drawing pharmacy experts, licensed doctors of pharmacy, and physicians. From ExpressScripts.

Drugs and Supplements (sponsored by the Mayo Clinic)

Somewhat lengthy drug and over-the-counter medicationinformation with these sections: description, before using, proper use, precautions and side effects. From Micromedex, a trusted source of healthcare information for health professionals. 

Herb and supplement information includes information on uses based on scientific evidence as well as safety and potential interactions with drugs, herbs, and supplements. From Natural Standard, an independent group of researchers and clinicians.

Drug Information Portal

A good central source of drug information by the US government (the National Institutes of Health). It links you to information on over 12,000 drugs from trusted consumer drug information sources, the US Food and Drug Information, and LactMed ***(summary of effects on breastfeeding), It also gives any summaries from medical and toxicological articles (however, some whole articles may not be for free on the Internet).

For information on how to obtain medical and scientific articles for free or at low cost, click here
***As of July 2011
The National Library of Medicine Drugs and Lactation Database (LactMed)
has added complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) products. CAM
products generally consist of dietary supplements derived from botanicals
(herbals), “nutraceuticals” (natural and synthetic nonherbals, such as
coenzyme Q10), and related products.
http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?LACT

PubMed MeSH database changes

The PubMed** interface is being changed section by section.
The MeSH section has been revised. 
Here is a message from the GMRLIST (an email list for the National Network of Libraries of
Medicine-Greater Midwest Region (NN/LM-GMR) members)

Hi Folks,Many of you have noticed the change in the MeSH database interface.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh
NCBI is working to update the entire website – section by section.FYI:The Technical Bulletin article
on this change is at:http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/jf11/jf11_pm_mesh_db.htmlThe updated brochures “Searching PubMed with MeSH are at:
PDF: http://nnlm.gov/training/resources/meshtri.pdf
Word: http://nnlm.gov/training/resources/meshtri.doc

If you have comments or questions about the new interface, feel free to contact NLM directly –
they welcome your feedback.http://apps.nlm.nih.gov/mainweb/siebel/nlm/index.cfm/

Here is a related posting from MEDLIB-L (a medical librarian listserv)

Here’s what I recvd. from NNLM: There have been some changes to MeSH.
–>Type your search term in the MeSH box.
–>Then click the box(es) on the left to select your term(s).
 –>Then click on the far right: Add to Search Builder Here are some helpful resources
(you have to click CTRL + Click for the URLs to work).

PubMed’s MeSH Database**
Searching with the MeSH Database
<http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/viewlet/mesh/searching/mesh1.html> (3 min., February 2011)
* Combining MeSH Terms Using the MeSH Database
<http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/viewlet/mesh/combining/mesh2.html> (3 min., February 2011)
* Applying Subheadings and Other Features of the MeSH Database
<http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/viewlet/mesh/subheadings/mesh3.html> (3 min., February 2011)
You can also see the MeSH Database section in the tutorial:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/disted/pubmedtutorial/020_

**Pubmed is the largest database of biomedical journal articles (some are free full text) in the world.
It is most often best searched using medical subject headings (MeSH).

The above two hyperlinks (PubMed and MeSH) including Help pages and tutorials.
Please do not hesitate to contact a public librarian, academic librarian, or medical librarian for assistance
in searching PubMed or locating medical articles.
In the case of academic or medical settings, call ahead to see what services the library has for the general
public.You just might be pleasantly surprised!

(You may also email me at jmflahiff@yahoo.com…I am willing to give free assistance which would
include about an hour of my time)

NLM Catalog: New Search Features for Journals Cited in Entrez Databases

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has recently launched a redesigned NLM Catalog that implements new search and display options related to journal searching. The search feature applies to PubMed and other Entrez databases.

According to the NLM Technical Bulletin item (full text here), the search and display options will include the search fields acid-free, broad subject terms, current format status, version currently indexed, endyear, ISO abbreviation, language, start year, and NLM title abbreviations. Nice summary table and screenshots.

 

Ready or Not? Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism

Ready or Not? Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism

[Flahiff’s note: Here in Northwest Ohio, one area of concern is Lake Erie water sampling for organisms as E. coli and toxic algae. For years a private college was doing the testing with their own funds. The funds have dried up and the state is still trying to come up with reliable funding.]

A December 16 item from the listserv DISASTR-OUTREACH-LIB, by the Disaster Information Management Research Center***, U.S. National Library of Medicine.

The findings of this report by the Trust for America’s Health and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are that budget cuts have imperiled a decade of progress in how the nation prevents, identifies, and contains new disease outbreaks and bioterrorism threats and responds to the aftermath of natural disasters.
Section 1 of the report provides a state by state evaluation on 10 key preparedness indicators in areas as funding, communication, planning, and staffing.
Section 2 of the report examines current federal policy issues and gives recommendations for improving disaster preparedness.
Gaps in preparedness are outlined (as workforce gaps) and examples of major emergency public health threats are identified. Hallmarks of all-hazards preparedness are also identified and National Health Security Strategy is outlined.
The report also includes expert perspectives national strategies and over 70 scientific/medical references in the endnotes section.

Key Findings of this Report (from page 5 of the report)

• 33 states and D.C. cut funding for public health from FY 2008-09 to FY 2009-10.
• Only 7 states can not currently share data electronically with health care providers.
• 10 states do not have an electronic syndromic surveillance system that can report and exchange information.
• Only six states reported that pre-identified staff were not able to acknowledge notification of emergency exercises or incidents within the target time of 60 minutes at least twice during 2007-08.
• Six states did not activate their emergency operations center (EOC) a minimum of two times in 2007-08.
• Only two states did not develop at least two After-Action Report/Improvement Plans (AAR/IPs) after exercises or real incidents in 2007-08.
• 25 states do not mandate all licensed child care facilities to have a multi-hazard written evacuation and relocation plan.
• 21 states were not able to rapidly identify disease-causing E.coli O157:H7 and submit the lab results in 90 percent of cases within four days during 2007-08.
• Only three states and D.C. report not having enough staffing capacity to work five, 12-hour days for six to eight weeks in response to an infectious disease outbreak, such as novel influenza A H1N1.
• Only one state decreased their Laboratory Response Network for Chemical Threats (LRN-C) chemical capability from August 10, 2009 to August 9, 2010.

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***Disaster Information Management Research Center

The Disaster Information Management Research Center  (DIMRC) helpswith national emergency preparedness, response, and recovery efforts. As part of NLM’s Specialized Information Services (SIS) division, DIMRC collects, organizes, and disseminates health information resources and informatics research related to disasters of natural, accidental, or deliberate origin.

It focuses on maintaining access to health information during disasters and developing services and projects for emergency providers and managers . (From the DMIRC about page).

A sampling of DMIRC resources

• Emergency and Response Tools as Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders (WISER). WISER helps emergency responders identify hazardous materials and respond to chemical emergencies. It contains information on over 400 chemicals and radiologic agents.
• Disaster Medicine and Public Health Literature . For example, the Resource Guide for Public Health Preparedness includes expert guidelines, factsheets, websites, technical reports, articles, and more.TOXLINE contains over three million references from the toxicology literature, including MEDLINE/PubMed, research in progress, and meeting abstracts.

• Librarians and Disasters has links to resources and tools as a bibliography on the librarian’s role in disasters and links to related listservs. The Emergency Access Initiative provides temporary free access to full text articles from major biomedicine titles to healthcare professionals, librarians, and the public affected by disasters.

New Look for NLM® and the New York Academy of Medicine Resource Guide Web Site

A New Look and Feel for the PubMed Central® Public Access Page

Since 2005,  scientists and researchers who receive NIH research are required by law to make their research findings (in medical or scientific journals) freely available to the public.

These freely available full text articles are largely available through PubMed Central.
PubMed Central is a free electronic collection of medical, biomedical, biology, and life sciences literature developed and maintained by US government agencies. PubMed Central is a subset of PubMed, the largest collection of biomedical article citations and abstracts in the world.

PubMedCentral articles have unique identifiers (article reference numbers) referred to as PMIDs.

The news item below describes how PubMed Central (PMC) is making it easier to locate articles with PMCIDs.

 

From the National Library of Medicine (NLM) November 30th Technical Bulletin item

The PubMed Central (PMC) Public Access & PMC page, available from the sidebar on the About PMC page, was recently updated to provide greater clarity and usability. Two new features were added:

• Top-of-the-page links to navigate page content
• A table for locating article reference numbers

New Location for Navigation Links

The Public Access & PMC page was reorganized and links to the page content are now at the top of the page (seeFigure 1). The new design makes it easy to see what the page contains and how to find the answers to your Public Access-related questions.

We’ve Got Your NumbersAdditionally, a new table (see Figure 2) demonstrates all the ways to locate the identification number of an article or manuscript — whether you’re looking for a PubMed identifier (PMID), NIH Manuscript Submission identifier (NIHMSID) , or perhaps most important, the PMC identifier (PMCID), which is the identification number that must be cited by recipients of NIH funding to demonstrate compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy. As seen in the table below, you can find these numbers through viewing the PubMed abstract; a PMC search result; and in the PMC display for the final, published article or the author manuscript. To reach this table click on the question, “How can I find a PMCID, NIHMSID, and PMID?”

 

 

To see more of the article, click here.

An earlier posting includes PMC as one of a few suggestions to obtain free and low cost medically-related articles.
Click here for the posting.

 

 

NLM® Catalog and Journals Databases Merge

From the November 19, 2010 NLM Technical Bulletin issue
[Please go to http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/nd10/nd10_nlm_catalog.html to view the entire article, including the accompanying screenshots]

The National Library of Medicine® (NLM) Catalog will soon be redesigned to provide users with a streamlined interface and enhanced search and display of the 1.4 million bibliographic records in the NLM database. The NLM Catalog will contain detailed MEDLINE indexing information about the journals in PubMed® and other National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) databases. The Journals Database will be retired.

What is new in the NLM Catalog

Additional searchable fields
Enhancements to the Limits page
New Journal display option and expanded Full display
Additional filters
Searching for Journals
Launching PubMed searches from the NLM Catalog
Effect on EUtilities

Additional searchable fields
New search tags will be added to limit searches to a specific field. Some of the new search tags are: Broad Subject Term(s), Current Format Status, Current Indexing Status, Version Indexed, ISSN, and PubMed Central® Holdings. See the full list of Search Field Descriptions and Tags in the NLM Catalog Help

Enhancements to the Limits page
A new category of Limits will be added called Journal Subsets. Users are able to limit searches to journals referenced in the NCBI databases, only PubMed journals, journals currently (or previously) indexed for MEDLINE®, PubMed Central journals, and PubMed Central forthcoming journals. Users can also limit searches to journals published in electronic-only format.

A new Images Material Type (images from the History of Medicine database) and three new Publication Types, Portraits, Postcards, and Posters, will also be added.

New Journal format display option and expanded Full display
A Journal display will be added to the Display Options in the NLM Catalog. This display includes fields of interest to those searching for information about journals, including MEDLINE indexing information. The Full display will also be expanded to include all available fields where applicable.

Additional filters
The following new filters have been created: Journals in the NCBI databases, Journals Currently Indexed in MEDLINE, and PubMed Only Journals. Users can view all available filters by browsing the index on the Advanced Search page. For more information about changing My NCBI filter preferences, please see the My NCBI Help.

Searching for Journals
The NLM Catalog will contain detailed MEDLINE indexing information about the journals in PubMed and other NCBI databases. Users can limit NLM Catalog searches to journals in the NCBI databases by using the Journals in NCBI Databases link on the NLM Catalog homepage or the Limits page (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: NLM Catalog homepage
Enter a topic, journal title or abbreviation, or ISSN into the search box and click Search. Automatic suggestions will display as you type your search terms (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Journals referenced in the NCBI Databases
On the Summary display, click the journal title or select Journal or Full from the Display Settings menu to view additional information. Note that the limit is activated and can be changed or removed by clicking the appropriate links (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: Summary Display with Limits Activated
Users can also visit the Limits page to limit a search to various journal subsets. The NLM Catalog will apply an AND Boolean operator when the Journals referenced in the NCBI databases limit is selected with a Journal Subset limit. A notice appears at the top of your search results indicating that limits have been activated.

Launching PubMed searches from the NLM Catalog
To build a PubMed search for journals from the NLM Catalog, run a search using Limits and use the check boxes to select journals. Click “Add to search builder” in the PubMed search builder porlet, and the journal title abbreviation(s) will be sent to the search builder box (see Figure 4). If a book or a non-PubMed journal is sent to the PubMed search builder, an error message will warn the user that the PubMed search builder only retrieves citations for PubMed journals. Continue searching the NLM Catalog and adding journals to the PubMed search builder using the Add to search builder button. The search builder will apply an OR Boolean operator if multiple journals are added to the search box. When you are finished, click Search PubMed to view the citations from the selected journal(s) in PubMed.

Figure 4: Using PubMed search builder
Effect on EUtilities
ESearch URLs for db=journals will automatically map to db=nlmcatalog. ESummary and EFetch will retrieve NLM Catalog XML.

By Sarah Torre
National Center for Biotechnology Information

Torre S. NLM® Catalog and Journals Databases Merge. NLM Tech Bull. 2010 Nov-Dec;(377):e7.

NLM announces MedlinePlus Connect

From a posting by  GMRLIST – email list for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine-Greater Midwest Region (NN/LM-GMR) members. Written by Samanthi Hewakapuge, MA, MLS, Consumer Health Coordinator

Today NLM [US National Libraries of Medicine) announces MedlinePlus Connect (http://medlineplus.gov/connect), a free service that allows electronic health records (EHR) systems to link users to MedlinePlus (http://medlineplus.gov), an authoritative up-to-date health information resource for patients, families and health care providers. MedlinePlus provides information about conditions and disorders, medications, and health and wellness.

MedlinePlus Connect accepts requests for information on diagnoses (problem codes) and medications. NLM mapped MedlinePlus health topics to two standard diagnostic coding systems used in EHRs: ICD-9-CM and SNOMED CT CORE Problem List Subset.

When an EHR submits a request to MedlinePlus Connect, the service returns the closest matching health topic as a response.  MedlinePlus Connect also links EHR systems to drug information written especially for patients. For medication codes, MedlinePlus Connect accepts RXCUIs and NDCs. The API for using this service conforms to the HL7 Context-Aware Knowledge Retrieval (Infobutton) Knowledge Request URL-Based Implementation specification.

MedlinePlus responds to problem code requests in either English or Spanish. Currently, it supports requests for drug information in English only.  NLM is working on adding laboratory test responses to MedlinePlus Connect. We will also support an XML-based Web service at a future date.

You can find more background and technical information at http://medlineplus.gov/connect. If you are an EHR owner or developer interested in staying up-to-date on technical developments with MedlinePlus Connect, or talking to other organizations that are using it, join the free email list athttp://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/connect/emaillist.html. To send questions or feedback, use the MedlinePlus Contact Us link athttp://apps.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/contact/index.cfm.

 

More Historical Journal Citations are Now in MEDLINE/PubMed

[Editor Flahiff’s note: I remember when getting citations from 1966 was a big deal!]

From a November 1, 2010 US National Library of Medicine (NLM) Bulletin posting

More historical journal citations are now in MEDLINE®/PubMed® with the addition of over 48,000 citations from the 1946 Current List of Medical Literature (CLML). The National Library of Medicine® (NLM®) has been converting information from older print indexes that were the precursors to Index Medicus. When the original MEDLINE database made its debut in 1971, it contained citations to journal articles published from approximately 1966 forward. The 1946 CLML represents the 20th year going back in time to enhance access to the older biomedical literature. With the addition of the 1946 CLML citations, the OLDMEDLINE subset contains over two million citations.

NLM also continues the work of mapping the original keywords assigned to these older references so that current MeSH® terms (Medical Subject Headings) are added to the records and available for searching in PubMed.

Additional information about the OLDMEDLINE data project is available.

 

 

 

New National Library of Medicine Website Spotlights Murder Pamphlets

This pamphlet tells the story of the 1881 discovery of the body of Jennie Cramer, a 20-year-old society girl, by fishermen along the Connecticut shore.

From  the announcement

A new website, “Most Horrible & Shocking Murders: Murder pamphlets in the collection of the National Library of Medicine,” has been launched by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world’s largest medical library. The site features a selection of murder pamphlets from the late 1600s to the late 1800s-from a treasure trove of several hundred owned by the Library.

Ever since the invention of movable type in the mid-1400s, public appetite for tales of shocking murders-“true crime”-has been one of the most durable facts of the market for printed material. For more than five centuries, murder pamphlets have been hawked on street corners, town squares, taverns, coffeehouses, news stands, and bookshops.

These pamphlets have been a rich source for historians of medicine, crime novelists, and cultural historians, who mine them for evidence to illuminate the history of class, gender, race, the law, the city, crime, religion and other topics. The murder pamphlets in the NLM’s collection address cases connected to forensic medicine, especially cases in which doctors were accused of committing-or were the victims of-murder.

The website (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/murderpamphlets/index.html), based on a 2008 exhibition at the NLM, is curated by Michael Sappol, PhD, historian in the NLM’s History of Medicine Division.

 

Editor Janice Flahiff’s thoughts…
Wondering if there are any online exhibitions of current or past telling of moving stories of peacemaking efforts at local, national, or international levels…surely peacemaking leads to healing at many levels…and is a  preventative…for many ills
Well, with 12+ years as a librarian, I think I just may do some focused searching…..

As an aside, here in Toledo, we dismantled Arlington Midwest, which was on display on the county courthouse grounds this past week. Spent about 10 hours this past week there at our information booth. Many good observations and stories by “visitors”, even those I respectfully disagreed with…..

NLM Launches “Digital Collections,” a Repository for Access to and Preservation of Digitized Biomedical Resources

From the Web site

The National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world’s largest medical library and a component of the National Institutes of Health, has launched a new digital repository, Digital Collections, at http://collections.nlm.nih.gov. This new resource is complementary to the PubMed Central digital archive of electronic journal articles (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/). The repository allows rich searching, browsing and retrieval of monographs and films from NLM’s History of Medicine Division. Additional content and other format types will be added over time. Users can perform full-text and keyword searching within each collection or across the entire repository.

“The new Digital Collections repository will allow NLM to provide permanent, robust access to an even broader range of biomedical information,” said Betsy Humphreys, Deputy Director, NLM.

Accessing the Collections

This first release of Digital Collections includes a newly expanded set of Cholera Online monographs, a portion of which NLM first published online in PDF format in 2007. The version of Cholera Online now available via Digital Collections includes 518 books (dating from 1817 to 1900) about cholera pandemics of that period. More information about the selection of the books and the subject of cholera may be found on the original Cholera Online Web page at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/cholera/. Each book was scanned into high-quality TIFF images, which underwent optical character recognition to generate corresponding text files. Finally, a JPEG2000 derivative was created for each page for presentation through the integrated book viewer, which includes a Flash-based zooming feature for resizing and rotating a page on demand.

National Library of Medicine Makes Numerous Resource Updates Available Online

The NLM exhibit booth at the Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association featured theater presentations to bring users up-to-date on several NLM products and services.
The presentation recordings are listed below and can also be accessed from the NLM Distance Education Program Resources page.

Presentations Include:

ClinicalTrials.gov Update…27 min.

DailyMed…16 min.

Health Services Research & Public Health Update…21 min.

History of Medicine Update…25 min.

Introduction to NCBI Molecular Databases…16 min.

MedlinePlus Update…22 mins.

MyMedicationList and RxNorm…20 min.

PubMed Review…24 min.

Resources for Disaster Planning and Response…24 min.

Toxicology & Environmental Health Update…14 min.

UMLS Update…22 min.

Using My Bibliography to Manage Compliance with the NIH Public
Access Policy…17 min.

Source: NLM Technical Bulletin