To celebrate the 34th anniversary of the LILACS database – Latin American Literature on Health Sciences – in 2019, several actions were carried out to disseminate and strengthen the most inclusive index of the Region, which culminated in the launch of the new portal with great participation of professionals from Latin America and the Caribbean.
A technical cooperation initiative between the Latin American Center for Perinatology / Women’s Health and Reproductive Health (CLAP/WR), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Brazil and the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME) enabled the distribution of 3,000 kits of perinatal technologies elaborated by CLAP/WR to improve the health of pregnant women, newborns, and children in seven states in Brazil.
The VIII Session of the Advisory Committee (AC) of the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME) was held on October 24 and 25, 2019, in São Paulo, Brazil, with the presence of representatives of five Latin America and the Caribbean countries: Barbados, Brazil, El Salvador, Guyana and Uruguay. Discussions focused on the institutionality, working plans, technical cooperation program and products and services of BIREME in knowledge management and scholarly communication in health for the Region.
The Regional Meeting on the use of Evidence for Policies was held on October 16-18, in Santiago, Chile, with the main purpose of strengthening the Network of Evidence-Informed Policies (EVIPNet) in the Americas and increasing the exchange of experiences and capacities among the different countries with strategies that promote the use of evidence in decision making for health policies.
BIREME/PAHO/WHO and the Brazilian Ministry of Health joined to participate in the XXVIII Congresso Brasileiro de Biblioteconomia e Documentação – CBBD 2019 in Vitória-ES, Brazil, and to promote the products and services of Brazil VHL, through a program of presentations congruent with the interest of participants at the event.
Within the framework of the Plan for strengthening the Virtual Health Library on Public Health of Paraguay (VHL), with the presence of Sueli Suga, BIREME Supervisor for Referential Sources, and with the objective of diffusing/giving visibility and access to the scientific and technical production of the country through LILACS and the VHL, a series of strategic meetings were held on October 1-3, along with the indexation course for librarians and editors, according to the LILACS Methodology.
As a contribution to facilitate the access to available evidence, as well as to identify knowledge gaps, BIREME, in collaboration with the Brazilian Academic Consortium on Integrative Health, held the first workshop on evidence maps on Integrative and Traditional Health Practices (Práticas Integrativas e Complementares em Saúde, PICS), on October 14 in São Paulo, Brazil. The workshop was financed by the Brazilian Ministry of Health and was attended by 39 participants from nine states of the different regions of the country.
The Instituto Lauro de Souza Lima, coordinating institution for the VHL Hansen’s disease, gathered its Consulting Committee for the 10° Simpósio Brasileiro de Hansenologia in Recife – PE, Brazil, with the objective of strengthening the thematic VHL and defining cooperation strategies for its reactivation, supported by BIREME.
With the objective of strengthening the International Nursing Virtual Health Library (VHL) and of outlining cooperation strategies for creating and strengthening its sources of information in Latin America, the XIII International Meeting of the Nursing VHL Network was held on September 24, in Panama City, Panama. BIREME’s participation was noteworthy and was focused on the contribution to the LILACS database and the strengthening of the Nursing VHL Brazil.
Since Nicaragua is one of the PAHO/WHO key countries, it also constitutes a priority for BIREME, and in this occasion the country received a visit from the Director of the specialized Center on Health Sciences Information, Dr. Diego González, who held strategic meetings with national counterparts related to the scientific and technical information component, as well as with the technical team of the PAHO/WHO office in the country. The reactivation of the Virtual Health Library and the adoption of tools for strengthening information systems and scientific communication were the objectives of the work undertaken.