The most recent version of the Health Sciences Descriptors/Medical Subject Headings (DeCS/MeSH) was made available for consultation in June this year. The main novelties are the revision of the hierarchical branch of MeSH concepts related to infections (now better combined in subcategory C01 of category C of Diseases) and the beginning of the review of the hierarchical structure of the exclusive categories of DeCS.
Another successful event in the series of webinars to strengthen the Health Information Networks – BiblioSUS and VHL Brazil -, took place on August 27 and was attended by 90 participants. There were three presentations that highlighted different points of view and experiences on the theme: “The Network’s role as a disseminator and intermediary of health scientific knowledge“.
From March to July 2020, besides the coordination meetings of the LILACS network, technical notes and calls to the network for cooperation with publications on COVID-19, meetings and training took place in virtual mode on the network. 23 virtual sessions were held on editorial processes of LILACS journals (5); on indexing of documents according to the LILACS Methodology (5); and on VHL information sources (7) for the Latin American network and 6 for the Brazilian network.
Revista Argentina de Salud Pública is a publication of the Ministerio de Salud de la Nación and has just announced the launching of a special supplement on Covid-19, which aims to disseminate scientific evidence and quality research results, fighting infodemia. Moreover, during the announcement, the journal Editorial Committee communicated important improvements in editorial management to provide it with the necessary agility to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In order to maintain effective communication with the members of the Advisory Committee (AC) and share partial information on the progress made on the recommendations from its members at the VIII Session held in October 2019, BIREME organized an Ad Hoc online Session of the AC on July 30, 2020. On the occasion, the implementation situation of the recommendations from the VIII Session and the challenges in the development of the 2020-2021 Biannual Work Plan during the COVID-19 global pandemic was presented, as well as obtaining recommendations to overcome them.
In a virtual session held on July 7, 2020, BIREME presented the main results achieved under the 6th Amendment to the Cooperation Term 95 (TA6/TC95), signed between the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization for through its Representation in Brazil (PAHO/WHO Brazil) and the Executive Secretariat of the Ministry of Health of Brazil.
Continuing the series Strengthening Health Information Networks, the second webinar of the Virtual Health Library Network (VHL Network) and BiblioSUS Network was held on July 29, with the theme “The importance of bibliographic control in the health area: expanding visibility and access”, which was presented by three experienced information science professionals directly involved in the management of the VHL databases.
On July 28, in a virtual session for Latin America and the Caribbean, the Window of Knowledge Nursing-Covid-19 was launched. The innovative format platform gathers scientific articles, technical documents, online courses, self-learning material, multimedia content such as videos and podcasts, webinars, blogs and other information sources for health professionals, especially in the field of nursing, researchers, technicians, students of health courses and the general public about nursing care to patient with Covid-19, in addition to enabling interaction between professionals and researchers.
The Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicines Americas Network (TCIM Americas) and the Brazilian Academic Consortium for Integrative Health (CABSIn in its Portuguese acronym), in coordination with BIREME, have been developing different products that seek to show the contribution of the TCIM to the Covid-19 pandemic. One of these products is the Evidence Map, in which the identification, analysis and characterization of clinical studies on interventions based on TCIM to improve the immune response, mental health in conditions of work stress and social isolation, and clinical management of COVID-19.
Open science can be defined as a comprehensive concept that encompasses several movements that seek to open up the entire research cycle and was motivated by the need to share resources between disciplines and increase transparency in all its stages. In order to disseminate the fundamentals of open science and encourage the adoption of its practices by journal editors in Brazil and Latin America, BIREME’s Scientific Communication Coordinator recently participated in two virtual events in the area.