BIREME/PAHO/WHO was present at the 3rd World Congress on Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine(3rdWCTCIM), in Río de Janeiro, Brazil, when João Paulo Souza, the Director of BIREME participated representing WHO and PAHO 
highlighting the MTCI importance in the Americas Region and the pre-launch of the Global Library of Traditional Medicine (WHO TMGL) was made.The WHO TMGL is an initiative led by BIREME and the World Health Organization Global Traditional Medicine Center (WHO GTMC), in collaboration with other institutions and collaboration networks.
João Paulo explained that “The WHO Traditional Medicine Global Library will be a large multi-epistemic repository of knowledge to facilitate collaboration, research, and implementation of traditional, complementary, and integrative policies and practices that are all effective and safe and enable progress toward health.” He informed the WHO TMGL official launch during the Second WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine, to be held in India on December 2025 and that participants could present suggestion and recommendations for the strengthening of the Library.
The library will have thematic pages that will allow the content to be deepened in specific areas. The first one, presented during the event in the pre-launch session of the WHO TMGL, is dedicated to Traditional Midwifery in the Americas, a collaborative work with the Department of Social and Environmental Determinants for Equity in Health (DHE) and BIREME/PAHO/WHO.
In the event BIREME/PAHO/WHO had a booth for the dissemination of its information products and services focusing on the WHO TMGL when visitors 
could also indicate suggestions and propose technical and strategic alliances for its strengthening.
Key meetings were held regarding the Thematic Pages: Dr. Philippe Sterlingot, president of the Osteopathic International Alliance, expressed his interest in collaborating with the WHO TMGL starting in 2026, and meetings were held to define cooperation strategies. Dr. Dora Pachova, from the European Committee for Homeopathy, expressed her intention to develop a page on Homeopathy focused on research; while with Erick Baars, from the Anthroposophic Medicine Research Council, progress was made in planning the Thematic Page on Anthroposophy Medicine. Mirelys Díaz presented the co-creation framework designed to guide the development of these thematic spaces within the WHO TMGL.
Among the highlights of the booth was the presentation of the Brazil Page on the WHO TMGL, with the presence of Daniel Miele Amado, 
consultant for the project and Manager of the Technical Unit for the Management of the National Policy on Integrative and Complementary Practices (PNPIC – Portuguese acronym) of the Department of Prevention and Health Promotion of the Secretariat of Primary Health Care of the Ministry of Health of Brazil. During the session, the multi-epistemic approach reflected in the page’s new information architecture was highlighted, serving as a model for other countries to represent the integration of Traditional, Complementary, and Integrative Medicine (TCIM) in their national health systems.
The exchange with the TCIM network of the Americas and the activities for the 40 Years of LILACS, along with the promotion of the TCIM Virtual Health Library (VHL TCIM), strengthened regional cooperation and concluded a week of high visibility for BIREME’s products.
The activities were led by BIREME Director João Paulo Souza, accompanied by Verônica Abdala, Manager, and Mirelys Días, Senior Information Analyst, who are also part of the WHO TMGL development team.
VHL TCIM for the Americas
The Virtual Health Library of Traditional Complementary and Integrative Medicines (VHL TCIM) developed and coordinated by BIREME/OPS/OMS was a reference in the Region of the Americas for the WHO TMGL, which uses the experience and methodologies developed through this VHL to define its structure, content curation and expansion planning at a global level.
In BIREME Bulletin is possible to access the historical news on the VHL MTCI since its conception (link).
Also visit: BIREME/PAHO and the Pre-Launch of the WHO Traditional Medicine Global Library.