About

About the VHL PHC

The Virtual Health Library on Primary Health Care (VHL PHC) is the result of technical cooperation among the Latin American and Caribbean Center for Information on Health Sciences (BIREME/PAHO/WHO) and the Ministry of Health through the Departamento de Gest��o do Trabalho e Educação em Saúde da Secretaria de Gestão da Educação na Saúde (DEGES/SGTES/MS) since 2007.

The VHL PHC is focused on the management of scientific and technical information related to Primary Health Care (PHC), having as main objectives:

– To provide full access to scientific and technical knowledge  updated, relevant and applicable to PHC in the context of SUS (Unified Health System) to support the activities of teleconsulting, telediagnosis and tele-education carried out under the Telehealth Brazil Networks Program.

– Broaden the visibility of the Formative Second Opinion (SOF) collection and promote its access and use beyond the Telehealth Brazil Networks Program.

And the following specific objectives:

– Continue the development and operation of the information sources collection on primary health care to meet the specific needs of key professionals from the Family Health Teams and to support the activities of teleconsulting, telediagnosis, tele-education and SOF under the Telehealth Brazil Networks Program;

– Update and expand the SOF collection from teleconsultings answered by the Telehealth Centers;

– Contribute to increase access and visibility of the educational resources in ARES/UNA-SUS, learning objects and content generated by training and updating activities of the Family Health Teams assisted by the Telehealth Brazil Networks Program;

– Develop and conduct training for the Telehealth Network in the use and access to the resources and information sources of the VHL PHC; and

– Collaborate with communication and promotional actions of the Telehealth Brazil Networks Program and the VHL PHC nationwide and in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC).

The Virtual Health Library (VHL) is the knowledge and information flow management model in health, based on cooperative and decentralized work, developed and promoted by BIREME/PAHO/WHO. The following principles for the development of the VHL PHC were agreed:

– The content collection that confirms the VHL PHC should be updated, relevant and pertinent to PHC and SUS (Unified Health System); and

– Free and unrestricted access to its content, especially those produced by the Telehealth Brazil Networks Program, must be promoted and considered as the main criterion for selection and availability of contents in VHL PHC.

Considering the type of information and content of primary health care that have been worked out under the Telehealth Brazil Networks Program, we have the following picture (in portuguese):

aps

Responsible team

– BIREME/PAHO/WHO – coordination and execution of the project
– Departamento de Gestão da Educação na Saúde (DEGES/SGTES/MS) – co-coordinating the project
– Department of Primary Care (DAB/SAS/MS) – collaboration
– Representatives of Telehealth Centers (NT) – collaboration

 

Related link:
VHL PHC Operation Guide (in portuguese)