In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 pandemic, when BIREME/PAHO/WHO supported countries in responding to the global health crisis, with strategic actions aimed at promoting equitable access to quality information and scientific evidence in health.
As a Specialized Center of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in scientific and technical information, BIREME contributed to overcoming the challenge through access to and dissemination of quality scientific information, development of databases, digital platforms, structured vocabularies and decision support tools, with emphasis on tackling the infodemic, i.e., the overabundance of information, often inaccurate, which hinders access to reliable knowledge.
Commenting on BIREME’s role during the pandemic, Director João Paulo Souza said: “The COVID-19 pandemic reaffirmed the critical role of scientific and technical information in responding to health emergencies. BIREME’s actions during this period demonstrated our commitment to science, collaboration, and equitable access to health information. It was a difficult period, but BIREME came through it with great strength and relevance, also consolidating a model of rapid response to health crises — which, in our field of work, means combating misinformation and rapidly providing quality information, swiftly, to support health action,” concluded the director.
Even during the period of isolation, BIREME’s operations were maintained in coordination with PAHO/WHO, including its history of virtual operations. Contingency and communication actions were implemented to protect the staff who worked effectively, as a team, and meet the needs of BIREME’s supporters and users. Everyone was informed of the main facts and events regarding the activities of the technical cooperation program and the management of the Center.
Sources of information on prevention, hygiene and vaccination were shared in good time, topics which at the time were of great importance not only to the staff at the Center but to the entire population in Brazil. “It was difficult to keep up with the growing numbers of people infected with COVID-19, including colleagues throughout the Organization, the sick leaves, hospitalizations and recovery processes with the well-known sequelae. It has been a complex situation, but one that has also been marked by countless successes,” said Silvia de Valentin, BIREME’s Administrator.
2020: rapid and strategic action since the beginning of the pandemic
In the first months of 2020, BIREME updated and applied the Windows of Knowledge methodology to organize selected, evidence-based information on COVID-19. The thematic windows covered everything from the general panorama of the disease to specific approaches, such as Nursing and Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine (TCIM).
In April, the WHO COVID-19 Research Database search interface was launched, with technology developed by BIREME, based on the Global Index Medicus (GIM) platform, that provides access to health evidence from low- and middle-income countries in the African, Americas, Eastern Mediterranean, Western Pacific, and South-East Asia Regions. The database was updated daily and brought together more than 430,000 scientific documents on SARS-CoV-2, accessed in more than 200 countries.
Also in 2020, BIREME adapted the Evidence Maps methodology to the context of the pandemic, organizing more than 40 systematic reviews on the use of integrative practices in the management of symptoms associated with COVID-19. The e-BlueInfo app, aimed at primary care health professionals, began to include content on COVID-19 in Brazil, Peru, Guatemala and El Salvador, countries participating in the app, which saw an increase of more than 100% in visits and pageviews compared to 2019. BIREME also created the PIE – Evidence-Informed Policy database, bringing together studies and syntheses that support public health decisions, many of them focused on the pandemic.
2021: expansion of information sources and scientific vocabularies
In 2021, the new edition of the DeCS/MeSH vocabulary was published, with the inclusion of 287 new descriptors related to COVID-19, such as SARS-CoV-2, Vaccines against COVID-19, Social Distancing and Teleworking. This update reinforced the role of DeCS as an essential multilingual terminology for indexing and retrieving scientific content in Portuguese, Spanish and English.
BIREME also boosted the Reference Network, which generated specialized search filters on topics such as reinfection, rehabilitation and vaccines. In all, the VHL’s repository of search strategies now has 530 filters, 31 of which are specific to COVID-19. The growth in access to platforms such as the VHL, GIM and the Regional Database of Health Technology Assessment Reports in the Americas (BRISA) reflected the growing demand for reliable evidence in a scenario of scientific uncertainty.
Since 2022: international recognition and consolidation
BIREME’s contribution to the WHO COVID-19 Research Database has been recognized by the WHO as fundamental to the database’s success. The Organization’s chief scientist, Soumya Swaminathan, highlighted the impact of the multilingual availability of the scientific literature gathered in the database, which had already been accessed by more than 1.6 million users by December 2021.
BIREME’s institutional communication was also intensified with regular updates through the website, social networks, intranet and the BIREME Bulletin, promoting not only its own products, but also PAHO/WHO materials on the pandemic, Virtual Public Health Campus (CVSP) courses and links to reliable resources.
Quality information as a response to the infodemic
Robust databases, thematic filters and international reach marked BIREME’s role in the disinformation crisis during the pandemic. “Quality information is a critical factor in the fight against the infodemic, and that is where our contribution lies,” said Diego González, Director of BIREME between 2016 and 2021. With products, services and impact indicators, BIREME has consolidated its role in promoting access to reliable information during the global health emergency. See some examples in the chart below.
BIREME’s response in numbers:
+430 thousand documents in the WHO COVID-19 Research Database
+530 thematic filters in the VHL repository
+287 COVID-19 descriptors in DeCS/MeSH 2021
+4 Window of Knowledge published on COVID-19
Over the past five years, BIREME has reaffirmed its mission to democratize access to scientific and technical health information, especially in times of crisis. Its initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic reflect a continued commitment to open science, equitable access to information and knowledge, and the strengthening of health systems in Latin American and Caribbean countries. These activities were carried out in accordance with PAHO/WHO technical and administrative guidelines during the pandemic and in close coordination with the Department of Evidence and Intelligence for Action in Health, to which BIREME is institutionally linked.
At the request of the BIREME Bulletin, the Center’s team reflected on the impact of the pandemic on its regular operations — which were marked by unprecedented challenges and the need for agile and innovative responses. Information professionals such as Elisabeth Biruel, Joanita Barros, Juliana Sousa, Marilda Perez, Rosemeire Pinto, and Sueli Suga shared their experiences from that period, illustrating the collective commitment to BIREME’s institutional mission. Their stories, collected on the attached page, highlight the importance of qualified information mediation and direct support to professionals and institutions on the frontline of the crisis response.