Guatemala is the third country of Latin America and the Caribbean and the first of Central America to adopt the e-BlueInfo mobile application (APP), which aims to reduce inequality in the access and use of scientific information and evidence oriented towards health care services.
The launch of e-BlueInfo in Guatemala occurred on November 27th, thanks to the intersectoral work between the country’s Virtual Health Library Advisory Committee, comprised of the Nutrition Institute of Central America and Panama (INCAP), the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala (USAC) and the Directorate General for Research (DIGI, PAHO/WHO representation in Guatemala), and the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare (MSPAS).
Primary health care professionals in Guatemala can access, through the APP, laws, norms and technical guides related to Primary Health Care (PHC) to support the promotion, education, prevention, care and palliative care. This content is organized in five collections of documents: Legal Framework in Health; Promotion, Education and Research; Gender and Cultural Relevance in Health; Integral and Integrated Care; Health Surveillance and Continuous Improvement.
The launch event was attended by the Vice Minister of Health Regulation, Surveillance and Control, Dr. Alvar Frank Perez; PAHO/WHO Guatemala’s Health Services and Systems Advisor, Dr. Caroline Chang; e-BlueInfo Coordination and Implementation Team representative, Professor Valentina Santa Cruz; a representative of the Promotion Department of the General Directorate for the Comprehensive Health Care System, Dr. René David Oliva; and the representative of the Section of Articulation and Development of Integrated Health Services Networks, Dr. Edgar Méndez.
“We are pleased that Guatemala is contributing to meet the commitments of the Primary Health Care Pact, consolidating its governance and rectory, strengthening its human resources for health and developing the conditions and capacity to expand health access and coverage, with equity and quality,” said Dr. Caroline Change, PAHO/WHO Guatemala Advisor, during her speech.
BIREME Director Dr. Diego González sent a video in which he acknowledged the hard work done by the local committee in close contact with the BIREME team led by Renato Muraski, Manager of Information Sources, as well as Heitor Barbieri and Sueli Suga. He congratulated them for the launch and set as a challenge the widespread dissemination of the application, as well as the continuous updating of the information contained therein.
In its first week of use in Guatemala, the application was installed more than 200 times, and over 1500 documents were visualized.
e-BlueInfo is developed and maintained by BIREME/PAHO/WHO, in coordination with the PAHO/WHO Representative Technical Units of Health Systems and Services, and the local Ministries of Health so that the selected content included in the application is best suited for the local health context. In addition to Guatemala, Brazil and Peru also have their collection of PHC documents available on the APP since December 2018.
Related content
- Instituciones presentan aplicación para Atención Primaria en Salud. Instituto de Nutrición de Centroamérica y Panamá (INCAP), Guatemala, Nov 27, 2019. Available from http://www.incap.int/index.php/es/noticias/176-blueinfo.
- Aplicación Móvil para la Atención Primaria de Salud. OPS/OMS Guatemala, Guatemala, Nov. 27, 2019. Available from: https://www.paho.org/gut/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1294:aplicacion-movil-para-la-atencion-primaria-de-salud&Itemid=441.
- e-BlueInfo: information in the palm of the hand. BIREME Bulletin n° 28, São Paulo, Jan 28, Available from http://boletin.bireme.org/en/2019/01/28/e-blueinfo-information-in-the-palm-of-the-hand/