VHL News Network

Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2007

The Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research (BJMBR) celebrated 25 years of publication in a scientific event held at the headquarters of Hemocentro de Ribeirão Preto (USP campus), on April 24, 2007. The BJMBR has been published since 1981 and is a continuation of the Revista Brasileira de Pesquisas Médicas e Biológicas, which became a monthly publication in 1989. Since 1997 the journal has been online published in open access as part of the SciELO collection. The BJMBR is the Brazilian health science journal presenting the highest impact factor, according to the Journal Citation Reports of the ISI. It is also indexed by other national, regional and international reference indices, such as MEDLINE, LILACS and SciELO. Its editor, Lewis Joel Greene, acknowledges the open access online publication promoted by SciELO, leading to constantly greater visibility and accessibility in the last years, which reflects in increased number of visits and citations
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Operation of the Public Health Virtual Campus in Latin America and Caribbean countries is the topic of a meeting

On May 3-4, 2007, the 4th Meeting of the Team Responsible for the works of the Public Health Virtual Campus (CVSP - acronym in Portuguese), an initiative coordinated by the PAHO, was held in San Jose, Costa Rica. The program included lectures by 40 specialists from 14 public health education institutions; three government agencies: the Ministry of Health of Costa Rica, the Department of Health of Puerto Rico and the Canadian Public Health Agency; as well as three international cooperation institutions from Latin America and the Caribbean: the Interamerican Center on Social Security, PAHO and BIREME/PAHO/WHO, which was represented by its Director, Abel L. Packer. The CVSP is a space to converge the action of social networks of individuals and institutions towards the development of individual competences and institutional capacities in public health, in Latin America and Caribbean countries
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RIPSA holds the 15th Interagency Workshop launching the Indicators and Basic Data Brazil 2006

The RIPSA held the 15th Interagency Workshop at the PAHO auditorium, in Brasilia, on May 17 and 18, 2007. It is the forum responsible for performing the Network activities. The Workshop was coordinated by Ernani Bandarra (DATASUS/MS) and João Baptista Risi Jr. (PAHO), and attended by 55 professionals of several fields of knowledge, representing approximately 30 national institutions that stand out in production and use of sources of information related to development of publics policies on health. One of the highlights of the workshop was the launching of the publication IDB-2006, which updates historical series of a set of approximately 110 categorized indicators. The BIREME/PAHO/WHO was represented by its Director, Abel Packer and Adalberto Tardelli, OFI Manager, who presented the results achieved by inserting the RIPSA at the VHL
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VHL Stations are available in 21 states and the Federal Distric

Two more VHL Stations were opened in Brazil: one in the city of Goiania, in Goias, and another in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte. It is an ongoing initiative in the context of the Public Health Virtual Health Library - Brazil (VHL SP), and today there are 22 VHL Stations in Brazil. The objective of this effort is to contribute to equitable access, strengthening and expanded use of sources of scientific and technical information at the VHL within the Unified Health System (SUS), so as to subsidize managers in decision-making processes related to health, researchers, professionals and students. By means of these Stations, the users can browse in more than 13 million references available at the VHL
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Clinical trial registry: BIREME announces that LILACS and SciELO journals must comply with WHO orientations

Acknowledging the public registry of clinical trials, in order to assure transparency in their performance and publication of result and to comply with ethical responsibilities, and to make Latin America and Caribbean journals follow recommendations and international quality patterns, the BIREME/PAHO/WHO made a recommendation to the editors of health scientific journals indexed by SciELO and LILACS, in the first week of May 2007. The clinical trial registry can be made in one of the Clinical Trial Registries validated by the WHO and the ICMJE, and their addresses are available at the ICMJE site. To be validated, the Clinical Trial Registries must comply with a set of criteria established by the WHO
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40th CAIS (PAHO) Meeting: the VHL stands out as an information and scientific evidence management space

Upon completion of 45 years of existence, the Comité Consultivo de Investigación en Salud (CAIS) [Health Research Consulting Committee] held its 40th Meeting, in Montego Bay, Jamaica, from April 29 to May 1st, 2007. With an agenda oriented to promote interaction and exchange information among the members newly elected for CAIS, and to elect the new President, the meeting aimed to update its members on technical cooperation projects and activities in health research at PAHO. Moreover, it was designed to put forward lines of action and new projects, and to define a work agenda for the Committee. Among several resolutions defined, the initiatives related to BIREME/PAHO/WHO and the Virtual Health Library (VHL). Regina Castro, coordinator of Scientific Communication in Health, represented the BIREME at the event
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