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VHL Mozambique: BIREME organizes a training workshop to reactivate VHL Mozambique in Maputo

On March 27-31, 2017, the National Institute of Health/Ministry of Health of Mozambique and the WHO Representation promoted training activities, which were coordinated by BIREME/PAHO/WHO and aimed to reactivate the VHL Mozambique. A total of 16 people were trained in management of contextualized information. The participants came from the main regions in the country, including coordinators, documentalists and IT staff representing seven institutions, such as public and private universities, Higher and Technical Institutes of Health Sciences, the National Institute of Health and the WHO Representation.

BIREME coordinates training workshops on health information in Mexico

Courses on scientific communication and access to health information were held at PAHO/WHO head offices in Mexico, on April 3 to 7, 2017. They were coordinated by BIREME and PAHO/WHO Mexico, and attended by 58 professionals from 14 federative organizations related to health promotion and prevention, including the Centro Nacional de Excelencia Tecnológica en Salud (CENETEC), Centro de Documentación Institucional and the Dirección General de Promoción de la Salud del Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública (INSP).

Online courses for the surveillance, control and elimination of neglected diseases

Since 2012, BIREME and PAHO’s Department of Communicable Diseases and Health Analysis (CHA/PAHO/WHO) have been developing projects to build courses focusing on the prevention, control and eradication of communicable diseases and zoonoses. These courses are self-teaching with free access and published on the Moodle platform of the Virtual Campus for Public Health (VCPH). There are already 11 projects for courses on Cutaneous Leishmaniasis, Visceral Leishmaniasis, Geohelminthiasis, Rabies, Trachoma, and Schistosomiasis, focusing on diagnosis, prevention, control and treatment of these diseases.

Teamwork for organizational innovation and strengthening

On April 13, 2017, the BIREME/PAHO/WHO staff participated in a training program to develop teamwork effectiveness. The event was supported by PAHO/WHO Human Resources Department, and took place outside the Center head offices to enable greater involvement of all employees in the activities. The effort considered the conceptual and behavioral alignment of five main themes that characterize cohesive teams: trust; relationship and conflict; commitment; responsibility; and focus and attention on result.

BIREME Hotsite to celebrate its 50 years of history

To express its successful history as the Latin American and Caribbean Center of PAHO/WHO, specialized in management of health information, the Hotsite BIREME 50 years was created as a space to celebrate and record important and memorable moments of this history. The Hotsite is open to manifestations of several players involved, employees and enthusiastic supporters. In fact, it is time of much joy, but also of reflection about the present and future of the Center.

BIREME presentation in the meeting of FSP-USP Faculty Committee

Acknowledging the historic course taken by BIREME/PAHO/WHO in the field of public health, as well as the collaborative work with the School of Public Health of the University of Sao Paulo (FSP-USP), the Faculty Committee of FSP-USP gave opportunity for a presentation about the BIREME, highlighting its priority lines of actions, information products and services, and future perspective for cooperation. The event was attended by full professors who comprise the Faculty Committee and representatives of other faculty categories and of students.

A bit of history

As it turns 50-year old in 2017, BIREME, a specialized center of PAHO/WHO, celebrates its important journey of effective contribution to the flow of scientific and technical information in health in the Latin America and Caribbean Region, as well as the consolidation of its mission to contribute for the development of health by means of strengthening, expanding, disseminating  and producing networks of sources of information about health sciences.

From physical to virtual to democratize information

From the need to create the Regional Library of Medicine to meet the demand of Latin America medical researchers and students for bibliographic services towards the establishment of the Virtual Health Library (VHL), BIREME reaffirms its commitment to contribute for the development of health of populations in the Region, by means of technical cooperation among the countries, aiming to promote and democratize production, access and use of information on health.

History of the governance

Since it was established, BIREME has relied on the support of Committees to exercise its governance, regarding scientific aspects as well as managerial and administrative ones. Such committees count on the presence of representatives from PAHO/WHO member countries, as well as on specialists in information and knowledge management. The Advisory Committee and the Scientific Committee are currently in operation, making recommendations to strengthen BIREME’s management and technical cooperation program. Read here and learn more about the dynamics of the committees along the Center’s history.

Contributing to the evolution of information

The history of BIREME is marked by four successive periods characterized by the technical and scientific information models adopted. Each new model incorporates its preceding model, thus enabling the Center to evolve while keeping its functions. The first period started in 1967 with the creation of BIREME as a Regional Library of Medicine, then goes on to the launch of the VHL, in 1998, and evolves to the present time, keeping the internet as the main platform for cooperative production and sharing of sources and flows of scientific health information.