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Switchover to New PubMed

Technical Notes

Switchover to New PubMed

Debut of ClinicalTrials.gov

2000 MLA Meeting Reminder and NLM Invitation

New NIH Clinical Alerts Available on NLM Web Site

Special Note on Changes to ACOUSTIC NERVE in 2000 MeSH

Images from the History of Medicine Rescanned Images Released on 2/24/2000

March 20, 2000 [posted]

It is expected that on Tuesday, March 21st, the URL for old PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=PubMed) will automatically point to the URL for the new PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=PubMed). The new PubMed that made its debut in September 1999 has many new features including Limits, Index, History and Clipboard [Editor's Note: see NLM Technical Bulletin 1999 September-October; 310]

The old version of PubMed will temporarily remain available through a link that will be added to the new PubMed's sidebar when the switchover takes place. This new link will remain until the old version of PubMed is retired.

It is also expected that on Thursday, March 23rd, any bookmarked URL queries to old PubMed will also automatically point to the new system.

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Debut of ClinicalTrials.gov

March 20, 2000 [posted]

The debut of ClinicalTrials.gov (http://clinicaltrials.gov) took place on February 29, 2000. This new service provides patients, family members, health care professionals, and members of the public easy access to information on clinical trials for a wide range of diseases and conditions.

ClinicalTrials.gov currently contains over 4,000 clinical studies sponsored primarily by the National Institutes of Health. During the coming year, additional studies from other Federal agencies and the pharmaceutical industry will be included.

ClinicalTrials.gov grew out of 1997 legislation that required the Department of Health and Human Services, through the NIH, to broaden the public's access to information about clinical trials on a wide range of diseases by establishing a registry for both federally and privately funded trials "on drugs for serious or life-threatening diseases and conditions." (Section 113, "Information Program on Clinical Trials for Serious or Life-Threatening Diseases," Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997, Public Law 105-115.)

Check out the User's Guide and Frequently Asked Questions at ClinicalTrials.gov for more searching information. Stay tuned for an upcoming feature article in the Technical Bulletin on ClinicalTrials.gov. See also the press release.

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2000 MLA Meeting Reminder and NLM Invitation

March 20, 2000 [posted]

The Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association (MLA) will be held May 5-11, 2000, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Attendees are invited to visit the NLM exhibit booth to meet NLM staff and see NLM's newest Web products, including ClinicalTrials.gov and the NLM Gateway. The NLM Theater will feature demonstrations and tutorials on a wide-variety of topics, including: new PubMed, PubMed Central, ClinicalTrials.gov, the NLM Gateway, the new DOCLINE, MedlinePlus, LocatorPlus, Profiles in Science, UMLS, and more.

While in Vancouver, consider taking a continuing education class taught by NLM staff and affiliates, for example:

Friday, May 5, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.:The History of the Health Sciences: A One-Day Overview
Wednesday, May 10, 1-5 p.m.:NLM's PubMed, Clinical Trials Database and the Next Generation Gateway
Wednesday, May 10, 1-5 p.m.:Introduction to Health Services Research
Wednesday, May 10, 1-5 p.m.:Finding and Using Health Statistics Results

Course registration information is available at http://www.mlanet.org/am/am2000/ce [This link was disabled because it is no longer available.], or contact MLA at 312/419-9094.

Also, please plan to attend:

  • NLM Online Users' Meeting "Sunrise Seminar" session on Monday, May 8, 2000, 7:30 - 8:15 am (location to be announced)
  • DOCLINE Update meeting "Sunrise Seminar" on Tuesday, May 9, 2000, 7:30 am - 8:15 am (location to be announced)
  • NLM Update on Monday, May 8, 2000, 10:30 am - 12:00 Noon in Exhibit Hall A.

Please join us at these events! Additional information or changes to this information will be announced in the next issue (March-April) of the NLM Technical Bulletin.

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New NIH Clinical Alerts Available on NLM Web Site

March 20, 2000 [posted]

NLM has once again made NIH Clinical Alerts available on its Web site, beginning March 9, 2000. This will serve to enhance the visibility of this important information. Clinical alerts expedite the release of findings from NIH-funded clinical trials where such release could significantly affect morbidity and mortality.

NLM began offering Clinical Alert notices online in January 1991 via its mainframe computer search system as a centralized service for all of NIH. Later it made the same information available via the Web. NLM preserves a copy of each Clinical Alert on its own site and, beginning with Clinical Alerts issued in 2000, also links to the Web site of the Institute releasing the alert. Users are encouraged to check the home pages of the separate NIH Institutes for other new announcements of or press releases on scientific information.

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Special Note on Changes to ACOUSTIC NERVE in 2000 MeSH

March 20, 2000 [posted]

The following documentation about the MeSH heading, Acoustic Nerve is available at: [This link was removed because it is no longer valid.] from the Medical Subject Headings home page. It is reprinted here for your convenience.

The following note is in response to questions regarding the recent change in the Main Heading "Acoustic Nerve."

  • "Acoustic Nerve" changed to "Cochlear Nerve" in MeSH

    In MeSH, from 1963-1999, the term Acoustic Nerve [This link was removed because it is no longer valid.] was considered synonymous with Vestibulocochlear Nerve [This link was removed because it is no longer valid.]. For 2000 MeSH, the meaning of "Acoustic Nerve" was changed to reflect current anatomical terminology and thinking. For 2000 MeSH, "Acoustic Nerve" [This link was removed because it is no longer valid.] is now considered a synonym of "Cochlear Nerve" [This link was removed because it is no longer valid.]. The cochlear nerve is a branch of the vestibulocochlear, and is what is referred to by the term "acoustic nerve."

  • Impact on MEDLINE citations and indexing

    In MEDLINE citations from 1963 to 1999, the occurrences of the Main Heading "Acoustic Nerve" have been changed to "Vestibulocochlear Nerve." To retrieve these citations in MEDLINE, use the term "Vestibulocochlear Nerve."

    Today a MEDLINE search using "Acoustic Nerve" will retrieve citations indexed by the Main Heading "Cochlear Nerve."
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Images from the History of Medicine Rescanned Images Released on 2/24/2000

March 20, 2000 [posted]

The following announcement about the Images from the History of Medicine is available at: [this link has been removed because it is no longer valid]. It is reprinted here for your convenience.

The National Library of Medicine is pleased to announce that approximately 60,000 rescanned images for the Images from the History of Medicine (IHM) web site became available today. The new images were rescanned directly from archival slides at a high resolution rate: (2700 dots per inch prior to compression for the World Wide Web). Because of the quality of these images, all are watermarked.

The IHM rescanning project was a three-year effort to improve the quality of the IHM images. Color resolution, original size, and clarity are much improved. With the original images, NLM was able to implement the IHM project quickly and they proved to be useful identifying tools. We believe that the new images will provide an even greater service to IHM users.

Link to IHM: http://wwwihm.nlm.nih.gov.

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