Author: Lilian Callo

The technical cooperation program of BIREME/PAHO/WHO is characterized by the Virtual Health Library (VHL), which in March 2022 completed 24 years of operation in the countries of the Region. Created in 1998, the VHL was motivated by the advent of the Internet, which enabled the operation of information sources via the Web, as well as their access by users. Thus, the VHL is consolidated as a virtual space for access scientific health information and evidence in Latin American and Caribbean countries.

In order to promote the publication of scientific research results and clinical observation in Nicaragua and to train participants in the main concepts that govern Scholarly communication in health sciences, a series of webinars on this topic was organized. The trainings are part of the Action Plan for the dissemination of the Nicaragua VHL, a project involving BIREME, PAHO/WHO Nicaragua, and UNAN Managua.

The search for reliable scientific information in the format and language needed for intervention through evidence-based policies and practices is particularly relevant in a pandemic scenario, when there is also much false information being disseminated. To facilitate and improve access to specific scientific documents, the coordinators of the LILACS Indexers Network and the Reference Network developed a joint action to create technical notes on indexing study types, methodology for validating search filters, and training for members of the LILACS and VHL networks.

BIREME/PAHO/WHO conducted training sessions for the Brazilian and Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Information Networks on the Information Sources of the Virtual Health Library (VHL), with the objective of improving the quality of the data inserted in the VHL bibliographic databases by professionals of the Cooperating Centers in Latin American and Caribbean countries.

With the theme “Harnessing innovation to reduce the burden of malaria and save lives”, on World Malaria Day 2022, celebrated on April 25, PAHO/WHO calls on countries in the region to intensify efforts to combat malaria through evidence-based prevention, diagnosis, and treatment interventions adapted to local contexts. See also the Window of Knowledge on Malaria in the Americas developed by BIREME.

BIREME/PAHO/WHO celebrates its 55^th anniversary in 2022 and, to mark this important date, which coincides with the year in which PAHO/WHO turns 120, a combined commemorative stamp was created, which is being applied to the graphic materials that will be used by BIREME throughout 2022 in official agendas and correspondence, PowerPoint presentations, email signatures and virtual meeting backgrounds.

The meeting between the BIREME team, which was attended by the Director of the EIH Department of PAHO/WHO and the Interim Director of BIREME, Sebastián Garcia Saisó, and the General Coordinator of Documentation and Information (CGDI), Shirlei Rodrigues, and Sandra Cristina Teixeira, responsible for the Dissemination of Technical-Scientific Information in Health, both linked to the Undersecretariat for Administrative Affairs of the Executive Secretariat of the Ministry of Health (MS in its Brazilian acronym) of Brazil, aimed to report and validate the results programmed and achieved by the Center in the second semester of 2021, in the context of the 6^th Adjustment Term to Cooperation Term 95 (TA6/TC95) and to progress activities of the Annual Work Plan (PTA) of the 9^th Amendment to the TC95 (TA9/TC95).

Health Information Networks are essential to strengthen and extend the work carried out by BIREME in favor of the VHL, LILACS, DeCS, and all information sources that contribute to the democratization of access and visibility of scientific knowledge in health in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (LA&C). These networks bring together information science professionals from cooperating institutions from all LA&C countries, the United States, Spain, Portugal, Mozambique, and other countries. BIREME, as the regional coordinator of this great Network of Networks, launched on March 9^th the 2022 Network Calendar of Meetings.

In order to meet regional needs for indexing and retrieving scientific and technical literature from Latin America and the Caribbean, the DeCS/MeSH thesaurus was created in 1986 as a Portuguese and Spanish version of the terms and thematic categories of the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus and expanded with four unique categories: Public Health, Homeopathy, Science and Health, and Health Surveillance. More recently, it is necessary to include a new specific category in the DeCS thesaurus, Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine (TCIM).

In the context of the technical cooperation agreement that marks phase III of the partnership between the Municipal Health Department of São Paulo (SMS – São Paulo) and BIREME/PAHO/WHO, the course on Access and Use of Scientific Information in Health took place in a virtual environment on February 23^rd. With a workload of 2h, targeting health and information science professionals from SMS-São Paulo, the course was attended by over 130 professionals.