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PAH DEI Resource Highlights

An evolving guide highlighting resources for nationally recognized annual heritage and health observance months

From the National Library of Medicine

Black Clinicians Biographies and Autobiographies

University of Pennsylvania Special Collections

Mercy-Douglass Hospital records - Philadelphia Area Archives (upenn.edu)

The Mercy-Douglass Hospital was an African-American hospital and the first black nurse training school in in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It existed from 1895-1960. This collection contains the institutional records of Mercy-Douglass, along with over 200 photographs of the hospital and nursing school.

Searching the Literature

Over the past few years, medical librarians have been exceptionally vocal about the use of outdated and offensive terms in the Medical Subject Headings vocabulary particularly in the Persons branch.  Concerns have also been raised regarding absent terms and lack of specificity for certain population groups.   Advocacy and discussion continue and are being led by Medical Library Association members and the Board of Directors. 

With this in mind, below are suggested controlled vocabulary terms to include in PubMed or other MEDLINE platform searches on Black health. 

Black People - MeSH - NCBI (nih.gov)

Black or African American - MeSH - NCBI (nih.gov) - this term is nested under "Black People"[MeSH].  If you leave the default to explode the MeSH tree in your PubMed search, Black or African American will also be included. 

Many databases will have an indexed controlled vocabulary term for Black People and/or African Americans.  Below are some examples from commonly queried biomedical and allied health databases.

Controlled Vocabulary Terms by Database
Database Controlled Vocabulary Term
Medline (PubMed)

MeSH - "Black People"

MeSH - "Black or African American"

Embase (Elsevier)

Emtree - 'Black person'

Emtree - 'African American'

Emtree - ' African Brazilian'

Emtree - 'African Caribbean'

CINAHL (EBSCO)

CINAHL Subject Headings - "Black Persons"

CINAHL Subject Headings - "African Americans"

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