The Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS for its acronym in Spanish) and the Center for Strategic Development and Information on Health and Social Security (CENDEISSS for its acronym in Spanish) officially launched the new platform of the Costa Rica Virtual Health Library (VHL), in an online event with the participation of national and international authorities, the PAHO/WHO representative in the country, the director of BIREME, and their teams.
The event featured opening remarks by Dr. Sandra Rodríguez Ocampo, representing Dr. Juan Carlos Esquivel Sánchez, director of CENDEISSS, who highlighted that this launch marks “a strategic milestone for Costa Rican health” by consolidating a national strategy aimed at strengthening knowledge governance and ensuring equitable access to reliable and up-to-date scientific information.
The PAHO/WHO representative in Costa Rica, Dr. Alfonso Tenorio Neco, congratulated the country for “decades of sustained work in favor of access to scientific evidence” 
and urged it to publicize this achievement as an example for other countries in the region.
The Costa Rica VHL is part of the regional model promoted by BIREME/PAHO/WHO, reaffirming the country’s commitment to technical cooperation, system interoperability, and the visibility of national scientific production. The new portal brings together more than 8,000 bibliographic records, 14 national scientific journals, and multiple institutional sources, including the CCSS, the Ministry of Health, the Institute on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (IAFA for its acronym in Spanish), universities, and health institutions.
During his speech, Dr. João Paulo de Souza, director of BIREME, recalled that Costa Rica has been a pioneer in the VHL model since the “San José Declaration” in 1998, and highlighted that this relaunch “represents a firm step toward open science and equitable access to knowledge.”
BIREME’s Information Products and Services Manager, Verónica Abdala, highlighted the 
importance of the collaborative work that made the platform’s renewal possible: “The VHL is not built by a single institution, but as a living network that is constantly renewing itself,” highlighting the national coordination by Magali Morales Ramírez and her team at CENDEISSS, as well as BIREME’s participation.
In her presentation, Magalli Morales Ramírez, head of the Information Area at CENDEISSS, gave a detailed demonstration of the new BVS Costa Rica portal, highlighting its main technological innovations and functionalities. These include the integration of multiple national sources, such as the CCSS repository, journals indexed in LILACS and SciELO, and content produced by universities and health institutions. Magalli emphasized that the platform’s central objective is to “democratize knowledge, reduce gaps, and strengthen evidence-based decisions,” consolidating a national health information ecosystem.
The new Costa Rica VHL incorporates innovative tools, expands search possibilities, and promotes the integration of national and international databases. With this relaunch, Costa Rica reaffirms its commitment to health equity, open science, and regional cooperation, consolidating its position as a benchmark in health knowledge management in the Americas.
Costa Rica VHL – https://costarica.bvsalud.org/