BIREME’s digital transformation is now also illustrated on its entrance panel: to celebrate the trajectory and new directions of the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME/PAHO/WHO), the entrance hall has gained a new institutional panel.
The artwork, the result of a collaborative process with leaders and teams, highlights BIREME’s digital evolution and its mission to promote equitable access to technical and scientific information on health. More than just an illustrative panel, the installation transforms the physical space into a point of contact with the Center’s history, achievements, and future prospects.
Inaugurated in June 2025, the launch ceremony was held with the participation of BIREME’s team and led by Director João Paulo Souza, with the participation of Geetha Krishnan Pillai, head of the World Health Organization Global Traditional Medicine Centre (WHO GTMC) Research and Evidence Unit, who was attending a PAHO event in São Paulo at the time, and Sebastián García Saisó, director of the Department of Evidence and Intelligence for Health Action (EIH), via remote connection.
Graphic design highlights people, products, and partnerships
The new panel gives unprecedented prominence to the products and services developed by BIREME throughout its history. A central timeline highlights milestones such as the creation of the Virtual Health Library (VHL), the Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (LILACS), Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS), and other information resources developed for application in health, highlighting how technological evolution and digital transformation permeate the history of developments and initiatives of the Center.
The graphic design also highlights the people and teams who build BIREME’s legacy on a daily basis, represented in collective photos of the team over the decades. “It is a tribute to the dedication of the professionals who make the Center’s mission possible,” emphasized the director.
Another important highlight is the network of institutional partners and associates. With their names in a word cloud, national, international, and regional organizations are honored, communicating the diversity and magnitude of technical cooperation. This space highlights the value that networking has for BIREME and the relevance of the collaborative work developed over the decades with hundreds of institutions. “These are institutions that, together with BIREME, build a series of innovative solutions to support knowledge translation into health practices”.
BIREME’s panel therefore cooperates with the engagement of its staff and institutional partners when they recognize themselves in the ongoing process of implementing BIREME’s mission over its 58 years in favor of access to health information, mentioned Silvia de Valentin, the Center’s Administrator.
Technological evolution in the spotlight
The new panel was designed to communicate multiple layers of meaning, integrating BIREME’s history—through its information products and services—with the evolution of technologies specific to this field:
- Timeline of products and services: from the creation of BIREME in 1967 to the latest digital innovations, the institutional trajectory is marked by pioneering launches and advances in favor of access to information. The future is also represented in the visual composition, indicating that the information resources produced by the Center will continue to be guided by the agendas of health and sustainable human development, in its major milestones projected for the years 2030, 2040, and 2050.
- Evolution of information and communication technologies: graphic elements such as telephones, computers, digital networks, and connected hexagons illustrate the transformation of information and communication media and platforms, from libraries of printed and analog content to the most contemporary digital resources.
- Institutional mission: BIREME’s mission is also included in the graphic design, with a text that was selected by the entire team as the most representative of its work: “Promoting health by facilitating access to and use of scientific and technical information for action in health.”
- Tribute to the team: two historical photographs of employees were selected to illustrate and highlight the human dimension. On the left, you can see a record made at the former BIREME headquarters in the 2000s; and on the right, the team in 2023, already in the current office, with the presence of Dr. Jarbas Barbosa during his first visit to São Paulo as Director of Pan American Health Organization.
- Partners and regional presence: a map highlights BIREME’s activities throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, reflecting the regional scope of its actions. Institutional partners and associates are featured prominently, highlighting the recognition of joint work and technical cooperation.
An experience for staff and visitors
The panel in the entrance hall not only celebrates the past and present, but also invites visitors, partners, and staff to experience BIREME’s innovative spirit. Through images and words, it expresses the ongoing commitment to regional cooperation and the promotion of access to scientific and technical information on health. Thus, everyone who enters the BIREME office finds an invitation to institutional memory, historical recognition, and the collective construction of a future designed to continue toward universal access to health information. “This panel translates into images what we are in essence: a community committed to innovation, networking, and the mission of expanding access to health information. It celebrates our history and projects our future,” concludes the director.