3rd Edition of BOS is AHDI - Kathleen

The current edition of the BOS is the 3rd by AHDI.

There are some changes to BOS3. Most of the changes are style and layout changes. You will find a completely different layout (chapters, instead of alphabetical) and more in-depth explanations of the style addressed. There were only 7 changes and/or suggested trends made in this new version, documented on the preface, page xiv.

The changes are listed below:

1. Dropping the use of hyphens with numeric values and metric units when forming compound modifiers. Per International System of Units convention and metric standards, no intervening symbols or punctuation should interrupt the flow from numeric value to metric unit, even in modifying relationship. (2 cm lesion now instead of 2-cm lesion)


2. Trend toward dropping the use of periods in most lowercased Latin abbreviations, like legal abbreviations and literary abbreviations. (et al, eg, ie, viz, etc)


3. Trend toward dropping the use of periods with abbreviated personal and courtesy titles. (Dr, Mrs, Jr, Sr)


4. Dropping the use of a comma to separate a person’s last name from titles. (John Smith Jr, Aaron Crabtree III)


5. Inclusion of a space between the numeric value and the degree symbol when expressing temperature values and their scale.  (98 ºF and 37 ºC)


6. Dropping the space between parameters when expressing TNM staging for malignant tumors. (T2N1M0 instead of T2 N1 M0)


7. Dropping the use of subscripts with EEG electrode references.

If you currently have the 2nd edition, you should be just fine for referencing and testing, as the style preferences have not changed except for what is listed above (you may want to note these changes in your 2nd edition).

I was "required" to use the BOS3 with one of my accounts. I was reluctant to purchase this, of course, due to costs, personal dislike of political issues with AHDI, etc.

However, when I started getting notes from QA citing such and such a page number of BOS3, I did have to get the book. It turns out that QA often touted incorrect page numbers, incorrect interpretations, etc.

Having had BOS2 drilled into me from Andrews, switching over to BOS3 was difficult for me at first. However, having had to use this (and making myself use it) for the last couple of years, I find that it is overall much better than the BOS2. Like the BOS2, I have had to pen some of my own entries in here and there.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your holidays. If you have BOS2 and like it, just pen in the changes and save your money.