MeSH

							Using and Combining MeSH
(Medical Subject Headings)
terms to search PubMED

        Jackie Cousins
   j.cousins@imperial.ac.uk
       Imperial College
Training Session
   Presentation – What is MeSH and
    why should you use it?
   Demonstration of MeSH database
   Practical Assessment – Complete
    Worksheet
   Evaluation forms
Learning Objectives
   Use MeSH terms to Run searches
    on the PubMED database
   Combine MeSH terms to find
    specific information on PubMED
What is MeSH?
   “A thesaurus of terms used by the
    U.S. National Library of Medicine”
    (NLM MeSH fact sheet)

   “4,800 of the world’s bio-medical
    journals Indexed with MeSh for
    MEDLINE/PubMED” (NLM MeSH
    fact sheet)
What is MeSH?
   Solves the problem of different
    terminology being used to describe
    the same concept. (MeSH
    database)
   The MeSH term “Influenza in Birds”
    covers bird flu, avian influenza, bird
    influenza.
Why use MeSH?
   Running a basic search for the term
    “bird flu” on PubMED will retrieve
    19230 results.
However
   Only 1480 results are retrieved for
    the MeSH term “Influenza in Birds”
Why use MeSH?
   Run very accurate PubMED
    searches that produce relevant
    results.
   Save time – less irrelevant results
    to check through
   Narrow down searches by
    Combining MeSH terms together
Demonstration
  Research the possibility of a
   link between MMR and the
      development of autism
Key Words
 MMR

 Autism
Practical Session
   Work through the 11 steps on the
    work sheet provided
   Use and combine MeSH terms to
    find information on the Outbreak of
    Bird Flu.
References
   National Centre for Biotechnology Information. A
    service of the National Library of Medicine and the
    National Insitutes of Health (2007) MeSH Database.
    Available at:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=m
    esh (Accessed: 13 March 2007)

   National Library of Medicine and the National
    Insitutes of Health (2005) Fact Sheet
    Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®). Available at:
    http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/mesh.html
    (Accessed 13 March 2007)