Search Results for: COVID-19

From March to July 2020, besides the coordination meetings of the LILACS network, technical notes and calls to the network for cooperation with publications on COVID-19, meetings and training took place in virtual mode on the network. 23 virtual sessions were held on editorial processes of LILACS journals (5); on indexing of documents according to the LILACS Methodology (5); and on VHL information sources (7) for the Latin American network and 6 for the Brazilian network.

Revista Argentina de Salud Pública is a publication of the Ministerio de Salud de la Nación and has just announced the launching of a special supplement on Covid-19, which aims to disseminate scientific evidence and quality research results, fighting infodemia. Moreover, during the announcement, the journal Editorial Committee communicated important improvements in editorial management to provide it with the necessary agility to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.

On July 28, in a virtual session for Latin America and the Caribbean, the Window of Knowledge Nursing-Covid-19 was launched. The innovative format platform gathers scientific articles, technical documents, online courses, self-learning material, multimedia content such as videos and podcasts, webinars, blogs and other information sources for health professionals, especially in the field of nursing, researchers, technicians, students of health courses and the general public about nursing care to patient with Covid-19, in addition to enabling interaction between professionals and researchers.

The Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicines Americas Network (TCIM Americas) and the Brazilian Academic Consortium for Integrative Health (CABSIn in its Portuguese acronym), in coordination with BIREME, have been developing different products that seek to show the contribution of the TCIM to the Covid-19 pandemic. One of these products is the Evidence Map, in which the identification, analysis and characterization of clinical studies on interventions based on TCIM to improve the immune response, mental health in conditions of work stress and social isolation, and clinical management of COVID-19.

BIREME entered into emergency teleworking due to the COVID-19 pandemic declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11th. Despite the challenging scenario, the Center continues to implement actions for the effective performance of its organizational structure of governance, management and operation, aiming at the implementation of its 2020-2021 Biannual Work Plan, within the framework of its technical cooperation for access and management of health information and knowledge.

In times of emergency, one of the main elements to consider is information, which is important for both the prevention and response stages. Currently, there exist various sources of information about COVID-19 related to health issues and other areas for decision makers, health professionals and the general public. A large number of sources correspond to Ministries of Health, research institutes and other national agencies. Many of these sources can also be found on the websites of countries’ central offices and PAHO and WHO centers.

The use of social networks has several objectives, including entertainment, communication between family, professional or social groups, and especially the search for information. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes the main role of the media, mainly due to the fact that international agencies similar to the WHO including PAHO, the United Nations, Ministries of Health, and scientific associations and societies, among others, have dedicated pages on their websites and social networks to COVID-19. In this sense, BIREME’s social networks aim to disseminate qualified content, from nationally and internationally accredited sources to all audiences.

The Reference Network (RefNet), coordinated by BIREME, aims to support managers, researchers, and health professionals in elaborating complex search strategies to support health policy and decision-making processes within the scope of Brazil’s Unified Health System (SUS). Recently, RefNet met to develop strategies to retrieve scientific and technical information about the new Coronavirus and COVID-19, to urgently respond to the demand for information on the topic.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to challenge the world and change everyday life as we know it, training, updating and supporting health professionals are of the utmost importance. In times like these, virtual tools can be very useful and make a big difference when we need to reach the largest number of professionals in the shortest possible time. In this sense, VCPH-PAHO offers several online courses on COVID-19 for health professionals.

The analysis of access statistics, utilizing the Google Analytics service as a data source, to the information resources on COVID-19 available at the Virtual Health Library (VHL) show that BIREME is fulfilling its mission during the pandemic and help to demonstrate the response of its technical cooperation in the face of a global health emergency.