The Scientific Committee of BIREME/PAHO/WHO met virtually at the VIII Session on September 8, 2022, with the aim of sharing the current implementation status of the recommendations of the previous session and of promoting an effective exchange to obtain recommendations in favor of visibility and quality of BIREME products and services for the Latin America and the Caribbean countries.
The VHL, a model for information management developed and coordinated regionally by BIREME/PAHO/WHO with the support of Latin American and Caribbean countries, is recognized as a good practice in the 4th volume of the publication “Good Practices in South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development” of the United Nations Office for South-South and Triangular Cooperation – UNOSSC.
The WHO – COVID-19 Research Database, which is supported by BIREME/PAHO/WHO, plays a key role in facilitating and democratizing the access and use of international scientific literature on COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2. Currently, activities are under way to improve and expand the sources of information in this important database. In addition, it is intended to provide greater robustness and flexibility to Information Architecture and data-based intelligence, in addition to intensifying the use of tools to promote knowledge, through Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Teams from BIREME and the General Coordination of Evidence of the Department of Science and Technology (COEVI/DECIT) of the Ministry of Health of Brazil evaluate the results of technical cooperation aimed at increasing the production, access, and use of scientific evidence in decision- and policy-making processes in the context of the SUS, in line with the Evidence-Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) initiative in Brazil.
On August 23, the Digital Innovations Webinar was held to facilitate the use of evidence and two new databases were launched: BIGG-REC and Therapeutics Covid-19. The initiative was promoted by the EIH Department of PAHO/WHO and BIREME through the motivation to present and disseminate new resources to facilitate the use of evidence by health decision makers.
On August 30, 2022, in a hybrid-format event in person at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, in La Paz, Bolivia and online, the Bolivian National VHL was launched. The effort to develop a National VHL as an umbrella that integrates the thematic initiatives of the VHL developed in the country is part of a State policy and a priority of national interest: the use and exploration of new information and communication technologies as a means of acquisition and generation of knowledge that contributes to the Bolivian strategy of reducing poverty and integrating Bolivia into the new information society.
With the main purpose of supporting the structuring of the Indegenous Health VHL and the development of its information products and services, a team from BIREME/PAHO/WHO visited two indigenous villages and the central coordination of the Special District of Indigenous Health (DSEI) of Cuiabá, in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, to get to know the local reality, the needs for access to and use of information, and some of the main challenges that can support their health practices and decisions.
The 2022 edition of the Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS/MeSH) is fully compatible with the latest version of the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) vocabulary, produced by the US NLM. The highlight of the 2022 edition is the incorporation of a new category to the thesaurus, that of Traditional, Complementary, and Integrative Medicines, which had the collaboration of the MTCI Americas Network, coordinator of the MTCI VHL.
The main objective of the technical cooperation project developed between BIREME/PAHO/WHO and PAHO/WHO Nicaragua was to activate the Nicaragua VHL and strengthen the Network of Cooperating Centers with the aim of increasing the visibility of scientific and technical production in health in this country according to the VHL Model. The project (May 2021 – June 2022) was developed in two Strategic Avenues: Information Management and Systematization, Information Technology and Human Resources.
The Health Information Networks are essential to strengthen and extend the work carried out by BIREME through the VHL and its information sources. These networks bring together information professionals, editorial teams, and health professionals from cooperating institutions in the participating countries, which depend on coordination, planning, mobilization, and spaces for exchanging experiences. For this purpose, meetings are held regularly with the Network, following an annual calendar. The results of these trainings and meetings in the first half of 2022 will be presented here.