VHL News Network

mirtaroses.paho.org: PAHO Director publishes her blog

One of the most recent and innovative channels of communication of the Internet – the blog - was chosen by Mirta Roses, Director of PAHO. It will enable her to disseminate her ideas and stands as an international authority in public health, directly on the Internet. In her introduction text, Mirta emphasizes that access to information on health is the result of the highest possible levels of health of individuals and families in the 21st century. Launched on May 3rd, 2006, the blog represents another expression of PAHO’s commitment to the need of strengthening processes and channels of communications to democratize access to information and knowledge on health
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eHealth at the IV EU – LA & C Ministerial Forum on Information Society in Lisbon

The IV European Union – Latin American and Caribbean Ministerial Forum on Information Society was held in Lisbon, Portugal, on April 28-29, 2006. The event gave continuity to the discussions from previous forums, held in Seville (Spain) - April 2002, in Lima (Peru) - July 2003 and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) - November 2004. BIREME/PAHO/WHO was invited and represented by Rogério da Costa, methodologies and technologies of information manager, who coordinated the discussion session on e-Health. The Forum Ministerial Commission decided to include a specific item on the Lisbon Declaration, about the incentive for the creation of National Laboratories and Centers specialized on e-Health and on regional action implementations with the objective of adopt and promote standards for the use of ICT health services
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Open Access and SciELO are discussed at event promoted by the Unicamp

“Open access to scientific articles: reality or quixotic struggle?” was the title of a lecture given by Rogerio Meneghini, scientific coordinator of the SciELO project, at the Permanent Forum of Knowledge & Information Technology, promoted by the Unicamp, in Campinas, on May 11, 2006. To illustrate the importance of open access to scientific information, Rogerio mentioned the example of the scientists Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel. SciELO represents one of the most important Open Access initiatives in the world in evolution since its launching in 1997. As a product of a cooperative project with BIREME, FAPESP and CNPq, the SciELO model was adopted immediately in 1998 by CONICYT (Chile), extending for various countries in LA & C, Spain and Portugal. With remarkable performance indicators SciELO is showing the importance of open access for the scientific communication
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Health Channel of El Salvador is focused on scientific and technical information and knowledge

The Ministry of Public Health and Social Security and PAHO Representation presented the Health Channel of El Salvador on May 8, 2006. As a mean for disseminate information and knowledge on health. It will facilitate the interaction of different levels of the MSPAS and other health-related institutions, in order to optimize the education and continuous training processes. Some actions to strengthen the VHL El Salvador were recommended as an instrument to promote and integrate initiatives of health information and knowledge management in the country. The VHL will be a space for interaction and a repository of knowledge and information generated in El Salvador and abroad, with open access and oriented to subsidize health-related decisions with updated and relevant information and scientific evidence. The VHL will register, index and disseminate the program of the Health Channel as part of the network of sources of information at the VHL El Salvador
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Workshop addresses file documentation at the VHL

The sources of information operated at the VHL have expanded regarding number and type. With the development of the thematic field of history of health and health heritage at the VHL, it is necessary to adopt and develop methodologies to operate other sources of information apart from the traditional ones related to scientific documentation and communication, including file description. This advance is one of the priorities of BIREME/PAHO/WHO, as recommended at the VHL4. To this end, the "Workshop on File Description Automation” was held at the Museu da Vida, at FIOCRUZ campus, on May 8-9, 2006. The event was coordinated by the COC/FIOCRUZ and the teams of BIREME and the Ministry of Health took part in it
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Long-distance Education at the VHL: effective access and knowledge

As part of its mission to develop methodologies and technologies that facilitate access to health-related information and knowledge through the networks VHL, SciELO and ScienTI, BIREME/PAHO/WHO has considerably advanced in collaborative practices enabled by the ICTs, particularly by promoting virtual meetings and activities among the institutions that cooperate with the VHL, SciELO and ScienTI networks, and also with international (ePORTUGUESe, SHARED, GHL and TropIKA) and regional (RISALC and CVSP) networks, which BIREME actively collaborates to. A pioneer initiative under regular operation at the institution for approximately two years, the Long-distance Course on Bibliographic Search at the VHL, has completed the 8th group. More than 1000 participants were trained since September 2004. Up to the end of this semester, the course will also be available in Spanish
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