The INFO Project Blog

BIREME, PAHO/WHO’s Latin-American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information, has developed a new Evidence Portal as part of its Virtual Health Library which users can access in English, Portuguese or Spanish.  This portal is designed for health practitioners and offers integrated access to health information sources with a good, sound basis in evidence. It also offers access to more information about Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) and the EBM methodology. 

For example, the portal includes links to over 6,000 articles in the scientific literature on family planning and over 50 clinical guidelines. The easy-to-use “search and browse” interface is similar to INFO’s own One Source interface.  One Source itself has links to over 8,000 journal articles from peer-reviewed journals on family planning, including almost 400 articles from 2007 alone.  Check out both of these excellent resources!

Recently, a HIF-net member from the World Bank asked the group where she could find online communities and lists covering public health and health systems in developing countries.

She received great suggestions and I’d like to pass them on here.

Reproductive Health Gateway Listservs are a good place to start, especially if you are looking for reproductive health-focused communities. Reproductive Health Gateway itself has a good list of electronic newsletters as well.

Another great starting point is the Communication Initiative. Its weekly Drum Beat newsletter covers communications in the context of development and also features an extensive global jobs listings.

For an African perspective, try Pambazuka News  or Soul Beat.  Pambazuka is published each Thursday and is an advocacy tool for social justice.  Soul Beat is published monthly by the Communication Initiative and is focused on communication in Africa.

If you have other suggestions, we would love to have you post them on the blog.