Paraguay is the newest country with its own e-BlueInfo collection, joining Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Peru. On December 13th, the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare, through the Directorate of Primary Health Care and the National Institute of Health in the role of National Coordinating Center of the Virtual Health Library in Paraguay, carried out the official launch of the e-BlueInfo application in the country.
The 21st edition of the National Seminar on University Libraries (SNBU, in its Portuguese acronym) was held virtually on December 7th to 10th, under the theme “University Library: tradition, practices, and innovations” and had more than 500 participants and a varied scientific program, with representatives of libraries and institutions in the field of librarianship and information science. The Ministry of Health, in cooperation with BIREME/PAHO/WHO, had a virtual stand, covering the VHL Brazil and BiblioSUS networks, with a focus on methodologies, products, and services developed for the management, access, and dissemination of scientific and technical information in health.
Between 2021 and 2022, the Pan American Journal of Public Health will implement a series of actions to commemorate its 100 years of life, a special celebration to precede the 120th anniversary of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and its continuous work in favor of health in the Americas. Learn about the history and evolution of the publication that began in 1922 as the Boletín Panamericano de Sanidad (Pan-American Health Bulletin) and is today one of the main Public Health journals in the Region. A commemorative website features historical articles, testimonies, a timeline, and relevant information about the official PAHO publication.
BIREME held its traditional end-of-year celebration virtually, for the second consecutive year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Per tradition, the main part of the event consists of the presentation by the acting Director and managers of the technical and administrative areas reporting the main results of the year. In addition, the activity “Our photos, our stories” was carried out, which aimed to bring people closer, and identify the positive moments experienced in 2021.
The World Health Organization, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization, held an event on the use of evidence to formulate public health policies that took place from November 15 to 17. In the context of the program, the Regional Network EVIPNet Americas convened, which met to discuss and assess the challenges facing Latin America and the Caribbean.
The next steps to advance with the initiative of a subregional Caribbean Virtual Health Library (VHL) were discussed during the two coordinated online meetings that occurred on November 9th, and 11th– 12th in coordination with BIREME/PAHO/WHO, PWR Guyana, MedCarib Network Coordination.
Between November 14th and 24th, the Instituto Nacional de Saúde, Coordinating Institution of the Mozambique Health Documentation Network (RDSM), held the Data Insertion and Validation Workshop on the Virtual Health Library (BVS) Mozambique platform. The objective of the workshop was, among others, to update the Mozambique VHL portal.
Bireme, in cooperation with the National Workshop of Social Determinants of Health, Equity and Health Promotion of the Technical Unit on Determinants of Health, Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental health of PAHO Brazil and a Working Group formed by more than 50 experts, which highlighted the general and transverse axes of the Commercial Dimension of Health subsidizing the thematic searches and the indication of reference documents indexed in the VHL databases, built a Window of Knowledge about the Commercial Dimension of the Social Determinants of Health.
Considering that the access and use of scientific evidence is essential to support decisions and interventions related to health, the workshop ‘Access and use of scientific information in health’ was held on November 16th for users of the Virtual Health Library (VHL) Nicaragua, organized by the PAHO/WHO Country Office in conjunction with the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua, in cooperation with BIREME
Health dates highlighted in the month of November, that integrate the PAHO/WHO calendar, are World Diabetes Day and World Toilet Day. BIREME has developed Windows of Knowledge to support the provision of scientific and technical information, as well as information for the public in infographic and video formats. Learn more about these features.