The newest version of the Emtree thesaurus launched in Embase on STNext on February 17, 2025. Emtree is a critical resource for the most updated terminology in biomedicine, pharmacology and medical devices, and is updated three times per year. The first new version per calendar year is notable because it incorporates all new MeSH preferred terms and changes for 2025 as published by the NLM, enabling multifile searching of Embase, MEDLINE and other biomedical databases.
The latest Emtree version adds 279 new drug terms and 1,395 non-drug terms. The thesaurus now contains 101,896 preferred terms and about 500,000 synonyms.
Highlights of the new version include:
- A total of 436 new disease concepts, including:
- a new hierarchy for chemically-induced disease, including drug dependence and experimental disease terms
- new terminology relating to eye diseases, pain and discomfort, aphasia, and congenital disorders
- New drug terminology, comprising 279 new terms, including information sourced from:
- the World Health Organisation’s INN (International Nonproprietary Names) list – including 220 names from the COVID-19 special edition
- the USAN (United States Adopted Names) list
- the US FDA, the European EMA, and the British MHRA
- New terminology for medical devices:
- 418 new medical device names, sourced from medical device manufacturers and the FDA
- 30 new terms relevant to signal amplifiers, educational devices, audiovisual aids, and photovoltaic devices
Customers running Alerts in Embase are encouraged to review the latest additions and changes to Emtree to determine whether their search strategies should be updated to ensure continued comprehensive retrieval. A repository of Emtree Release Notes, as well as lists of Added and Changed Emtree terms, can be found at: https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16354/supporthub/embase/kw/emtree/