The BIREME Director Transfer process that took place on October 27 and 28 formalized the end of Diego González’s term as Director of the Center and the appointment of Sebastián García, Director of the Department of Evidence and Intelligence for Action in Health (EIH) of PAHO/WHO as Interim Director. On October 29th, employees of the Center gathered on a Zoom meeting to say goodbye to Diego González in a special edition of Café com Ideias.
Diego González Machín, employee of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and who serves as Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME/PAHO/WHO) since August 2016, will retire on October 31, 2021. The purpose of this article is to honor Diego González and celebrate the five years of his tenure.
The Seventh Session of the Scientific Committee (SC) of BIREME/PAHO/WHO was held virtually on September 30th with two main objectives: (i) to report on the progress of the Center’s management and technical cooperation activities based on the recommendations made in 2020; and (ii) generate an exchange among SC members to obtain new recommendations with a view to improving the visibility and quality of BIREME’s products and services for Latin America and the Caribbean. The SC is one of BIREME’s Governance Committees in addition to the Advisory Committee.
The 35 years of the Health Sciences Descriptors – DeCS were celebrated in an online event promoted by BIREME/PAHO/WHO. The ceremony had the simultaneous participation of more than 300 people from several countries of the region and some of the actors who contributed with BIREME to write the successful history of DeCS, with the support of PAHO and alliances with institutions in Brazil, Chile, Spain, the United States, and France. DeCS is the main controlled vocabulary for indexing and retrieving published scientific and technical literature on health in the Latin American and Caribbean region.
The annual sessions of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) Directing Council bring together health ministers and high-level delegates from their Member States or Latin American and Caribbean countries to discuss and analyze policies and establish priorities for joint technical cooperation and collaboration. The 59th Session was held virtually from September 20th to 24th. The following is a brief summary of the main topics discussed at this session, and in particular BIREME’s participation as a Specialized Center of the Organization.
The Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine (AIHM) represented by its Executive Director, Tabatha Parker, and the Pan American Health Organization, Regional Office of the World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) represented by the Director of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau, Carissa F. Etienne, signed a Cooperation Agreement to expand technical and scientific cooperation in traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine.
The Pan American Health Organization presented a new web portal to improve access to data and analysis on health inequalities in the Americas. Evidence and Intelligence for Action on the Goals of SDG-3 Targets seeks to facilitate the monitoring carried out by countries and organizations of the internationally agreed goals to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3: Guarantee a healthy life and promote wellness for everyone at all ages. BIREME’s products and services that contribute to evidence-based health decision-making are present in this EIH / PAHO initiative.
The visit of the Executive Undersecretary for Administrative Affairs of Brazil’s Ministry of Health and staff of the General Coordination of Documentation and Information (CGDI) to BIREME’s facilities on August 4th was aimed at strengthening the institutional relationship with the Center and highlighting actions and results of technical cooperation under TA6/TC95.
The Brazilian Ministry of Health’s Virtual Health Library celebrated 20 years in a virtual event held on August 31st, with members from the Ministry of Health, BIREME/PAHO/WHO, and those responsible for the creation of the VHL at the time in attendance. During the event, the new website of the MS VHL, the commemorative anniversary stamp, and the Natural History of COVID-19 Window of Knowledge were launched.
The Natural History of Covid-19 Window of Knowledge was launched amid the event celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Virtual Health Library of Brazil’s Ministry of Health’s. The Window was created out of the need to understand Covid-19’s natural history, as an important prerequisite for the planning of new studies, being a product of the technical cooperation between BIREME and the Secretariat of Science, Technology, Innovation, and Strategic Health Inputs of the Ministry of Health of Brazil (SCTIE/MS), through of the Department of Science and Technology (DECIT).