On April 21st, El Salvador formally joined the e-BlueInfo mobile application, becoming the fourth country in the Americas to do so, 16 months after its launch, alongside Peru, Guatemala and Brazil.
An online session attended by the Ministry of Health, leaders of the National Health Institute, the PAHO/WHO Representative in the country and the Director and staff of BIREME marked the launch of the application.
e-BlueInfo is an Information Platform for Health Practice that puts information in the palm of healthcare professionals. Its main objective is to reduce the inequity in the access and use of information and scientific evidence oriented to health care services through an application for smartphones that facilitates and streamlines this access and use according to the different areas of performance of health professionals. The application is available on Android and iOS platforms and the contents can be accessed online or downloaded to the devices' memory, for offline use.
The inauguration of the application in El Salvador was the result of the integrated work of the teams of the National Health Institute and BIREME, said Renato Murasaki, Manager of Methodologies and Information Technologies at BIREME. The content includes, in addition to scientific and technical literature, primary care guides, standards and protocols of the Ministry of Health of El Salvador, specifically for COVID-19.
Dr. Carlos Alvarenga, Deputy Minister of Management and Development at the Ministry of Health stressed that “consulting reliable sources is fundamental for our health professionals, decision makers, clinicians and students of medicine and health careers. In addition, this application is yet another tool to fight false news and promote the science we do in our country, like the one published by the journal ALERTA”.
Dr Carlos Roberto Garzón, PAHO / WHO Representative in the country, also informed that El Salvador is the first among the countries that joined the e-BlueInfo to develop a specific collection for the Coronavirus, aimed at all health professionals, but especially those of Primary Health Care.
A detailed presentation of the application's features and potential was made by Dr Diego González, Director of BIREME, PAHO / WHO Specialized Center that integrates the Organization's Evidence and Intelligence for Health Action (EIH), whose Director, Dr Sebastián Garcia , was present at the virtual session.
The Deputy Director of the National Health Institute, Dr. Xochitl Sandoval, concluded the ceremony, thanking everyone for their presence and emphasizing the importance of the joint work of the Ministry of Health, PAHO and BIREME. He stressed that this is the first result of a close collaboration with the Center that started earlier this year and will continue with many other achievements.
