São Paulo, 4 December 2018 (PAHO/WHO) – Experts in health sciences information are meeting this week to analyze the role that evidence and scientific knowledge could play in achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, particularly in the field of health.
This is the primary focus of the 10th Regional Congress on Health Sciences Information (CRICS 10), organized by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) through the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME), which takes place from 4-6 December in São Paulo, Brazil.
“We appreciate your guidance on how, through better access to information, evidence and knowledge, we can progressively advance towards improvements in the health and well-being of people. Most importantly, how we can continue addressing the pervasive inequities that persist in the Americas,” said PAHO Director, Carissa F. Etienne during the opening ceremony of CRICS10.
The Director also highlighted the importance of this issue for the Region and for the fulfillment of its own Sustainable Health Agenda for the Americas 2030, which summarizes the main objectives agreed by countries in order to achieve the sustainable development targets for health over the coming years.
“Your work can make critical contributions towards bridging the know-how gap that informs complex decision-making across policy areas.”
During the opening of the conference, Etienne also called for the Primary Health Care strategy to be advanced as the foundation for universal access to health and universal health coverage. “This call has resonated across the globe so that all people can enjoy the highest attainable standard of health and realize their full potential for productive, dignified lives,” she said.
The Director of PAHO highlighted that knowledge and evidence is what enables the organization to expand its response in the fight and against diseases and to ensure the well-being of those who live in the Region. She also stressed that the challenging context that the Region is currently experience could jeopardize the rate at which public health goals are achieved. “Your work can make critical contributions towards bridging the know-how gap that informs complex decision-making across policy areas,” she added.
CRICS 10 convenes health information experts from all over the Region of the Americas. During the three days of the Congress, 25 presentations will be given by specialists from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Spain, the United States,
Honduras, Peru, Portugal and Switzerland, which seek to provide information on various world contexts, as well as create a space for learning, exchange and networking among professionals, students and researchers interested in the field of health information.
“This year’s CRICS program underscores the cross-cutting nature of information, evidence and knowledge in the 2030 Agenda. In this regard, PAHO’s specialized Center of BIREME is ready to play an important role to support innovation and digital health, the management of knowledge and information, the development of evidence-based policies and decision-making, open science, and research and development of scientific information, to ensure progress towards the attainment of each goal of the Sustainable Development Agenda,” said Etienne.
During the congress, there will be three keynote addresses: Cristina Luna, Adviser to the Minister of Public Health of Ecuador will present on “Agenda 2030 in Latin America and the Caribbean: What connections close the Know-Do gap?”; Amanda J. Wilson, from the United States’ National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) National Network Coordinating Office, will talk about her library as a platform for biomedical discovery and data-powered health; and Henrique Villa da Costa Ferreira, National Secretary of Social Articulation from the Secretary of Government of the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil, will discuss the issue of: “Agenda 2030 in Brazil: what contributions can science offer?”. A series of round tables will also provide an opportunity to discuss knowledge management, open science, information management, innovation and digital health, research and scientific communication, education and health, among other topics.
Prior to CRICS10, the 7th Regional Coordination Meeting of the Virtual Health Library (VHL) was held. During this meeting, participants were able to exchange information on these libraries as a model, strategy and cooperative framework for information and scientific communication in health.
The CRICS series began in 1992, in the framework of the meeting of the then representatives of the 37 countries that made up the Latin American Health Information System, which is today the VHL Network. It was conceived as an innovative congress in the fields of information and scientific communication, knowledge management, methodologies and information technologies and their applications for the development of research, education and health care systems. Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico and the United States were host countries of previous editions of CRICS.
Links
— CRICS10
