World Health Day 2019: Universal Health for Everyone, Everywhere

World Health Day, celebrated on April 7th, marks this year the end of the 70th anniversary celebrations of the World Health Organization (WHO). In the Region of the Americas, these celebrations focus on universal health, under the theme “Universal Health: Everyone, Everywhere”. Special mention must be made for the events organized by public institutions and NGOs for World Health Day in the city of São Paulo, with the participation of BIREME.

Interim Director of the EIH Department visits BIREME

Dr. Jacobo Finkelman, interim Director of the Department of Evidence and Intelligence for Action in Health (EIH) visited BIREME on April 24 to 26. The objective of this visit was to align the Center’s work and technical cooperation to the activities held in Latin America and the Caribbean by the Department, in which BIREME is integrated.

Management, institutionality and technical cooperation of BIREME are part of the agenda of the Ministry of Health of Brazil

Alexandre Pozza Urnau Silva, Sub Secretary of Administrative Issues of the Brazilian Ministry of Health and the General Coordination of Documentation and Information (Coordenação Geral de Documentação e Informação, CGDI team met at BIREME to discuss topics on the management, institutionality and technical cooperation of the Center. Besides Dr. Diego González Machín, Director, and the BIREME team, Jacobo Finkelman, Interim Director of the PAHO/WHO EIH Department, and Janine Coutinho, Knowledge Management Consultant for PAHO/WHO Brazil, also attended the meeting.

Windows of Knowledge – A new concept for highlighting health information on the VHL

BIREME, as a PAHO/WHO Specialized Center on health sciences information, is constantly searching for innovative ways to display information and evidence on specific topics for its users, in order to support research, teaching, clinical practice and decision making. Windows of Knowledge  are VHL resources that aim to give visibility and access to the main documents and other information resources on priority health topics.

IPEA output available on LILACS through interoperability between systems

The inclusion of the scientific output of the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada – IPEA) to the LILACS database was ensured through a project using interoperability between the system that stores IPEA data and the system adopted by the LILACS Methodology of BIREME. Motivated by the success of the project, IPEA organized a seminar in March 2019 about the relevance of the use of scientific and technical evidence in health decision making.

Innovation, technology and health enterprise

The Global Summit Telemedicine & Digital Health, coordinated by the Associação Paulista de Medicina, which took place recently in São Paulo, was a place for discussion and exchange of knowledge, experiences, new concepts and ideas related to innovation, technology and enterprise in health. BIREME was represented in the event by its Director, Diego González and by Verónica Abdala, Services and Information Sources Manager.

March is a celebration month for BIREME: 52 years of the Center and 21 years of the VHL

March is celebration month for BIREME: 52 years of the Center on the 3rd, and on the 27th, 21 years of the Virtual Health Library (VHL), the main technical cooperation strategy. These are important dates and celebrations, as they strengthen the institutionality of the Center, which acts regionally with all Latin America and the Caribbean countries.

PAHO/WHO BRA and BIREME meet with the Joint Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Health

The first meeting between BIREME Director, Dr. Diego González, and the Deputy Executive Secretary of the Brazilian Ministry of Health, Dr. Erno Harzheim, took place in Brasilia on March 20, with the purpose of discussing the country’s technical cooperation with the PAHO/WHO Specialized Regional Center. Alongside Dr. González, Dr. Socorro Gross, PAHO/WHO Representative in Brazil, and Janine Coutinho, PAHO/WHO Brazil Knowledge Management consultant were also present.

The Dominican Republic promotes the use of evidence for collective health interventions

BIREME organizes and delivers a workshop on access and use of scientific evidence for supporting decisions and interventions related to collective health problems in the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo, an initiative of the Ministry of Public Health of the Dominican Republic, with the support of the PAHO/WHO Representation in the country.