From July 12 to 15, in Campo Grande, MS, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) Brazil participated in the XXXVI CONASEMS (National Congress of Municipal Health Secretariats), a reference event in health public in Brazil whose programming was coordinated by the Ministry of Health (MS) and the National Health Council (CNS) and which had approximately 6 thousand participants. The Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Information Sciences (BIREME) promoted its information products and services in the context of the Virtual Health Library Network (VHL) and the Window of Knowledge on Management of the Unified Health System (SUS) launched during the event with the General Coordination of Documentation and Information of the Undersecretariat for Administrative Affairs, Executive Secretariat of the Ministry of Health (CGDI/SAA/SE/MS).
PAHO Brazil made institutional publications available during the presentations by BIREME and in ​​Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health (NMH). BIREME presented mini-courses to promote products and services and supported an agenda of 18 presentations organized by PAHO Brazil at the stand.
Considering that CONASEMS’ target audience are municipal managers, teams allocated to the Health Departments and primary health care teams, BIREME presented information resources for primary health care through the PHC VHL (Portuguese) and its content highlight regarding Second Formative Opinion (SOF) (Portuguese), with its more than 1,600 responses to the demands of the family health teams that make up the Unified Health System (SUS). Resources for evidence-informed decision-making of the new EVIPNET Brasil (Portuguese) portal were also presented, such as the search service, evidence syntheses, and the online course on Evidence-Informed Policies. The General Coordination of Documentation and Information/Sub-secretariat for Administrative Affairs/Executive Secretariat (CGDI/SAA/SE/MS) also opted for the PAHO Brazil stand to launch the Window of Knowledge on Management of SUS (Portuguese), developed with BIREME/PAHO/WHO , which was attended by the Executive Undersecretary for Administrative Affairs of the Ministry of Health of Brazil, Luiz Tadeu Villela Blumm, accompanied by the CGDI Coordinator, Shirlei Correa Rodrigues.
The Ministry of Health, represented by the Department of Science and Technology/Secretariat of Science, Technology, Innovation, and Strategic Health Inputs (DECIT/SCTIE/MS), by the Department of Interfederative and Participatory Management/Executive Secretariat (DGIP/SE/MS) brought up issues of health financing and spending and systems developed for management in SUS.
The agenda of presentations was made available in the congress schedule, to inform event participants, increasing participation and interest in these programmed activities. The promotion of products and services in the context of the Virtual Health Library Network (VHL) and associated networks, developed by BIREME/PAHO/WHO in person at the XXXVI CONASEMS, was enthusiastically resumed after the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. The actions that took place regularly in the context of the main public health events in Brazil are relevant to promote the work of the institutions involved, and to inform the public about the VHL and the available resources with the aim of expanding and strengthening institutional relations.