BIREME
Information for Action in Health
For 58 years strengthening the capacity of national health systems to provide access to reliable information, improving policy and health decisions.
PAHO Flagship Initiatives
Enabling access and use of scientific and technical information through digital products
Operation and continuous development of the Virtual Health Library - VHL ecosystem
36 Countries
9.5M users
60M visits/year
730K full text downloads
Development of Artificial Intelligence solutions
Automated synthesis Super Abstracts AI
Automated indexing
DECS Finder AI
Natural language processing
Strengthening decision capacity of health personnel and the communities on PAHO’s priorities
Continuous operation and enhancement of digital tools
ProEthos
Ethics Committees
BIGG/BIGG REC
International Database of GRADE Guidelines and Recommendations
Good Practices Platform
Digital SUS Platform
First Response Platform / Formative Second Opinion Program
Covering NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Vaccines, and Maternal Health
1,800 Frequently Asked Questions, which correspond to 65% of the PHC queries in Brazil
Decision Aids for the general public
Maternal and Reproductive Health and Rights
RIPSA Health Indicators Portal
Enabling access and use of scientific and technical information through digital products
Conducted bibliographic control and surveillance in the region
LILACS covers 900 journals not integrated in global platforms corresponding to approximately 50% of the scientific output of LAC countries
LILACS Plus integrates the Regional output into the global scientific output 3M Scientific Records
Expanded the Global Index Medicus in the six WHO Regions
Open access scientific safeguard for the Global South
Expanded the coverage of evidence to support PAHO’s priorities
Developing thematic Virtual Health Library pages that offer curated content, advanced search tools, scientific dashboards, and direct access to key documents and resources
Strengthening decision capacity of health personnel and the public on PAHO’s priorities
60 VHL Thematic pages covering topics within the Organization priorities
80 Evidence Maps in various topics that synthesize the scientific evidence/gaps
VHL & TMGL thematic page for "Traditional Birth Attendents" Enhancing the safety and effectiveness of traditional birth assistance in remote regions, indigenous populations and local communities
Knowledge Translation Tools VHL thematic page on interventions to reduce maternal mortality and improve maternal health, connected with the First Response Platform
Enabling access and use of scientific and technical information through digital products
WHO Traditional Medicine Global Library
Six regional portals, 194 country pages
COVID-19 Pandemic Digital Memorial
Emergency Response Scientific Database Model - COVID-19 Database
Strengthening decision capacity of health personnel and the public on PAHO’s Priorities
First Response Platform
Digital tool supporting providers in overcoming uncertainties and applying evidence-based practices
Development and Operation of Information Products and Services for Action in Health
Virtual Health Library
Integrates more than 60 information sources and facilitates access to scientific and technical information from LA&C and the world.
LILACS Plus
Promotes the visibility of LA&C’s scientific and technical publications.
Evidence Maps
Facilitates informed health decision-making by providing a clear view and access to the best scientific evidence.
Windows of Knowledge
Displays and highlights documents and information resources for priority health topics.
Public Policies
Research and Innovation
Strengthening the Capacity of National Health Systems
Healthcare Workers
Lay People and Communities
Formative Second Opinion
Quick answer for frequent doubts of health professionals with short, and contextualized texts, and informed by evidence.
GRADE Guides and Recommendations
Health guidelines, protocols and recommendations easily accessible to frontline health workers and decision-makers.
e-BlueInfo
App with reliable and up-to-date information to reach those who need it most from rural areas to urban centers.
Decision Aids
Empowering communities with the knowledge they need to make informed health decisions.
Development and Operation of Information Products and Services for Action in Health
Strengthening the Capacity of National Health Systems
Virtual Health Library
The VHL integrates more than 60 information sources and facilitates access to scientific and technical health information from LA&C and the world.
LILACS PLUS
Promotes the visibility of LA&C’s scientific and technical publications.
Evidence Maps
Facilitates informed health decision-making by providing a clear view and access to the best scientific evidence.
Windows of Knowledge
Showcase and highlight documents and information resources for priority health topics.
Formative Second Opinion
Quick answer for frequent doubts of health professionals with short, and contextualized texts, and informed by evidence.
e-BlueInfo
Reliable and up-to-date information reaching those who need it most from rural areas to urban centers.
GRADE Guides and Recommendations
Decision Aids
Commitment to Cooperation and Innovation
VHL - Virtual Health Library
The VHL is a collaborative library that offers comprehensive access to scientific
and technical information in health. The VHL collects, indexes, and stores
citations of documents published by various organizations. Its collection
comprises more than 38 million documents from 60 health information sources,
including LILACS, MEDLINE, PAHO-IRIS, WHO-IRIS, and national databases from LA&C. Explore the VHL.
LILACS - LA&C Health Sciences Literature
LILACS is the most important and comprehensive index of scientific and technical health literature from LA&C, with over 1 million articles from more than 900 journals, theses and dissertations, books, government documents, and publications from international organizations in the Region. Search in LILACS.
DeCS/MeSH - Descriptors on Health Sciences
Structured and multilingual thesaurus – Portuguese, Spanish, English, and French – representing health sciences terminology and providing a unified language for indexing and retrieving documents in the VHL. DeCS includes terms from the MeSH of the U.S. NLM and exclusive categories in the fields of Health Sciences, Homeopathy, Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicines, Public Health, and Health Surveillance. Also, check out DeCS Finder – a service that facilitates the search for DeCS/MeSH descriptors.
Windows of Knowledge
The Windows of Knowledge aims to showcase and highlight selected documents and informational resources from the VHL collection, focusing on a relevant health topic. Explore now the Portal that brings together more than 50 Windows of Knowledge.
GRADE Guidelines and Recommendations
Integrated platform for clinical and public health decision-making resources produced by WHO, PAHO, and other national and international institutions following the GRADE approach. There are three resources: BIGG – International GRADE Guidelines Database; BIGG-REC – Repository with over 3,000 individual recommendations for the SDG3 targets from about 300 GRADE guidelines from PAHO and WHO; BIGG-Map – Interactive map providing an overview and graphical representation of evidence for the management of priority diseases. Access the Platform.
Evid@Easy - Guided Evidence Search
It is a guided search tool for evidence in the VHL on topics reflecting the health priorities of SDG 3. EVID@Easy guides users through questions (or pathways) for different stages of the decision-making process. Each pathway culminates in a search result in the VHL. Connect to EVID@Easy.
Cooperação técnica com os países da ALeC
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Technical Cooperation with LA&C Countries
BIREME, a PAHO/WHO center associated with the Department of Evidence and Intelligence for Action in Health (EIH), is a digital library specializing in the scientific and technical output of Latin America and the Caribbean in the health sciences. BIREME carries a health promotion mission by enabling access to and use of scientific and technical information for action in health.
It focuses on technical cooperation with countries to establish Virtual Health Libraries and other digital information products, services, and systems aimed at bibliographic control, indexing, archiving, and developing digital platforms for searching and retrieving scientific and technical health information.
