The aim of the project is to take the comprehensive medical thesaurus Medical Subject Headings as the starting point for a bilingual termbase (English and Dutch) using the GenTerm method; and to make the data available in an electronic format. In addition, a limited number of French equivalents have been added since academic year 2002/03. Furthermore the project aims to do theoretical research into medical terminology and terminography.
Most of the research is carried out in the framework of MA dissertations. The students who contribute use a uniform record made available by the Department’s Terminology Centre (see GenTerm). Research is based on primary as well as secondary sources and also involves medical informants.
The MeSH Termbase Project also offers support to the Farma project, which focuses on pharmaceutical terminology. Klaar Vanopstal’s PhD research project into the impact that automatic language support may have on medical searches by doctors and other medical staff was also heavily MeSH-centred (PhD defended August 2013).
For further details see http://www.cvt.ugent.be/mesh.htm