VHL News Network

Global alliances to advance eHealth in developing countries is the theme of an international conference organized by the Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation holds the conference Making the eHealth Connection: Global Partnerships, Local Solutions, from July 13 to August 8, 2008. The program includes discussions on innovations and proposals aiming to establish global alliances that will expand the application of information and communication technologies in order to improve healthcare systems and give priority to the most vulnerable and low-income populations. BIREME/PAHO/WHO is one of the 12 institutions that have been cooperating with the Rockefeller Foundation to organize the conference and is in charge of debating and promoting the formulation of global solutions and alliances to enable access to quality information on healthcare
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South Africa considers the SciELO model for its journals

Interested in sharing experiences and learning more about the SciELO model of open access to scientific publications, a delegation from the Academy of Sciences of South Africa (ASSAf) visited the BIREME/PAHO/WHO in July 2008. As a strategy to support the advance of national scientific research, the country aims to develop conditions that provide more visibility and accessibility to the scientific production of national journals. Therefore, the successful SciELO program in Latin America and the Caribbean is an outstanding reference in the process of research, evaluation and adoption of solutions for national scientific communication
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WorldWideScience Alliance Portal includes the SciELO network in federated searches

The worldwidescience.org portal has been recently launched by the Department of Energy of the United States (DOE). One of its sources of scientific information from Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain is the SciELO network. The portal results from a multilateral cooperation called WorldWideScience Alliance which provides federated searches on a set of sources of scientific information from different parts of the world
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ePORTUGUÊSe VHL strengthens information and knowledge management in Portuguese-speaking countries

The ePORTUGUÊSe network is an initiative coordinated by WHO that adopts the VHL model for cooperative management of scientific and technical information and knowledge on health in the Portuguese-speaking countries. The network was launched in 2005 gathering all Portuguese-speaking countries, and it is aligned with the WHO policies and lines of action to promote multilingualism to expand dissemination of information and knowledge and to contribute to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
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Scientific Editor Associations are stronger in Central America

The 1st Central American Meeting and the 3rd National Meeting of Scientific Editors from Honduras were simultaneously held in July 2008 and represented an important step to strengthen the scientific production in the region. The events took place in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where the "Declaration of Tegucigalpa for establishing the Central American Scientific Editor Association (ACAECI)" was made. This document represents the formalization of search for support to establish an organization that promotes availability, visibility and access to the national scientific production of the Central American countries in regional and international databases
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Ecuador promotes access to quality information for decision-making process in healthcare

In May 2008, the Ministry of Health of Ecuador coordinated four courses on access to sources of information on scientific evidence in healthcare, based on the Cochrane Library, the Cochrane Plus Library and the Evidence Portal at the VHL. The courses were promoted by the PAHO/WHO Representative in the country and by BIREME/PAHO/WHO. The courses were designed to develop a culture of evidence in the national healthcare systems and to support the decision-making processes in clinical medicine and public health management
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