The 5th Session of the Scientific Committee (SC) was held on November 28 and 29, and it was attended by experts from Brazil (Information Technology), Colombia (Education and Knowledge Management), Costa Rica (Scientific Research), Cuba (Management Information) and Mexico (Scientific Communication). The Jamaican expert (Georgiana Gordon-Strachan, Scientific Research) justified her absence by sending her contributions after evaluating the Report and the session agenda. The session was opened with the remote welcome of PAHO/ WHO Assistant Director Dr. Jarbas Barbosa da Silva Jr., who underscored the importance and role of the Scientific Committee in generating recommendations for strengthening and increasing visibility of the institutional and technical cooperation program of BIREME’s scientific and technical information products and services for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Dr. Diego González Machín, BIREME Director and SC ex-Secretary, supported by the Managers, Coordinators and staff, led the meeting. Dr. Roberto Carlos Pacheco and Dr. Jaider Ochoa Gutierrez were appointed, respectively, Chair and Rapporteur of the session.
Dr. González and his team each presented their own progress in implementing the Recommendations of the SC Fourth Session, held in 2018, punctuated by comments and questions from Committee members. In general, members expressed appreciation for the developments presented and new products that will be developed by BIREME under the new BWP 2020-2021. In addition, timely responses to each SC recommendation were well received.
Each SC member then made relevant and timely considerations and recommendations on what they consider the key points of BIREME's products and services in the near future. Members also pledged to shortly submit a document formalizing these recommendations to the Director of the Center. This will be part of the final report of the V Session that will be shared with the Director and the Assistant Director of PAHO/WHO.
New members for 2020-2022
According to the BIREME Statute, the SC is appointed by the Advisory Committee (AC) for a three-year term. Membership of this SC ends in December 2019 and the process of electing new members is being finalized. A list of experts proposed by BIREME and the AC is under review and approval and will soon be communicated to the PAHO/WHO Director, who will formalize invitations to selected experts.
About the Scientific Committee
The main function of the Committee, according to BIREME’s Statute, in the context of its new institutional framework (CD49.R5), is to elaborate recommendations for the Advising Committee on BIREME’s programmatic functions, in accordance to the international state of the art in scientific information and communication, which encompasses: policies and criteria of quality for content selection; management of information, knowledge and scientific evidence; editorial management; storage infrastructure and information retrieval; bibliometrics, info-metrics and scientometrics.
The Statute establishes that the Committee must be composed of at least five international specialists, assigned for their renowned competence in scientific research, health information and knowledge management, scientific and technical communication in health and for their knowledge in the fields of research, ethics, development, operations and financing.
