Author: Lilian Callo

PAHO Institutional Repository for Information Sharing now at the VHL

The PAHO Institutional Repository for Information Sharing (IRIS) has the mission to organize, disseminate, and preserve scientific and technical information generated by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).  PAHO IRIS comprises all Mandates of the Directing Council, scientific and technical publications, technical meeting and progress reports, besides all articles published in the Pan American Journal of Public Health. In an interoperability effort in cooperation with the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME), PAHO IRIS is now one of the sources of information retrieved at the Virtual Health Library (VHL).

VHL Paraguay pays homage to BIREME’s 50th anniversary

The II Foro Nacional de la Biblioteca Virtual en Salud (BVS) en Paraguay took place in Asuncion as part of the 50-year anniversary of the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME). This event was organized in parallel to the Congreso Científico Internacional de la Federación Latinoamericana de Sociedades Científicas de Estudiantes de Medicina (FELSOCEM).

Wellness Week: health requires constant attention and effort

PAHO/WHO adopts persistent and innovative policies to try to reduce the incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCD) in the Americas, like the Wellness Week, which aims to translate the commitments of the United Nations Declaration into concrete actions in the countries. Considering that there is an increasing association between communicable and non-communicable diseases, it is even more important to prevent NCD, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and some types of cancer associated to lifestyle and even a growing association between NCDs and communicable diseases, it is increasingly important to prevent non-communicable diseases.

Ecuador promotes scientific investigation in health at national level with BIREME support

The Jornada Nacional de Investigación, Regulación y Desarrollo de la Investigación Científica was held in Quito, Ecuador, from September 13 to 15, organized by MSP, with the support of PAHO/WHO and BIREME. The objective was to generate input for the design of policies, strategic guidelines and norms to strengthen the development of scientific research on health nationwide. One of the highlights of the activities developed was the re-launching of the Ecuador Virtual Health Library Ecuador, meetings, round tables, and conferences about research; in addition to workshops—one about access and use of scientific information and another on scientific communication.

Ensuring that new generations have access to information

Considering the amount of knowledge and skills that the new medical professional may need to care for the health of the population, easier and quicker access to scientific and technical information, updated and placed in the context of the realities found in different medical urgency and emergency situations, is certainly a component that can make a difference in the quality of the clinical decisions made by these young physicians. With this purpose, about two thousand medical students from Latin America assembled in Asuncion, Paraguay, for the XXXII FELSOCEM, were introduced to the products and services of BIREME, and participated in a workshop on access to and use of scientific and technical information in health.

MyVHL: A customized information product

BIREME launches a new customized information product for Virtual Health Library (VHL) users. This new functionality is called MyVHL and stores information and preferences of users to provide customized services, such collections of selected documents, defining themes of interest to receive alerts of new documents, history of previous searches, list of favorite links, and users’ own publications.

BIREME and its strategic role in Health in the Americas+

Health in the Americas has been the most relevant publication of PAHO/WHO, uninterruptedly produced and issued since 1956. The 2017 edition brings a future vision that will allow defining actions to strengthen the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). One of these actions is entitled “Public Health in the Information Society” and relies on the tradition, knowledge, experience and leadership of BIREME/PAHO/WHO, strengthened by the support of a network of health sciences information institutions and experts, that support PAHO/WHO member countries to achieve the SDG.

PAHO/WHO Director of Administration visits BIREME at its 50th Anniversary

Gerald Anderson, the PAHO/WHO Director of Administration, was at BIREME/PAHO/WHO at the beginning of August 2017, within the context of celebrations of its 50th Anniversary, which contributed towards strengthening the operations and the administrative and institutional management of the Center. It was concluded that the new institutional mark and the new facilities characterize and identify the specificity of its governance and operation, sustainable for five decades, especially due to the cooperative work with 37 countries and 2,000 organizations inside and out of the Region.

FUNASA encourages scientific publishing in sanitation

Scientific writing is complex and obeys to strict rules, and it is not an easy task to write a scientific document. Researchers, however, are substantially compensated for their efforts, since the publications and resulting impact have become proxy of quality, credibility, and career progression. With the objective of stimulating the dissemination of projects of Fundação Nacional de Saúde (FUNASA) and their results in the form of scientific and technical articles, a course was given on theoretical and practical training in scientific communication topics for the foundation’s team.

LILACS – networking to enhance its quality and visibility

The selection processes of LILACS journals are periodically discussed and evaluated by the team of coordinators from the countries that integrate the Latin-American and Caribbean (LA&C) network. This process contributes to amplify the visibility of the literature published in the Region, consolidating and simultaneously standardizing the selection criteria of the evaluation processes of journals, by means of a regular calendar of virtual meetings with the coordinators of national and thematic networks