Infomed
Encyclopedia
Infomed is the Cuban health portal and the network of people and institutions that share the purpose of facilitating the access to the health information in Cuba.
in Cuba, and it is today a network with national reach. The project has received awards and international recognition, in particular the Stockholm Challenge Award in 2002.
It is a network of people and institutions that share the purpose of facilitating access to information and knowledge to improve the health of the Cuban people and other people of the World, by intensive and creative use of the information and communication technologies.
The first international steps of this network were participating in a project of the Pan-American Health Organization
and the National Library of Medicine of the USA to access MEDLINE
with the help of e-mail
through the project BITNIS. The network started as an initiative of the Medical Sciences Information National Center, that was founded in 1965 to take care of the information needs of doctors and other health workers.
A characteristic of the project has been the use of the information and communication technologies with a social vision and with the developments of local capabilities. It was the first national network in utilizing the GNU/Linux operating system
in all its servers for the development of national content and adequate services to its health system. Since 1994 it has placed the complete texts of the Cuban medical magazines in internet and encouraged the development of specialized sites in the most diverse subjects of the medical sciences and public health.
It provides the users with an opportune and efficient access to quality scientific and technical information assistance, administration, education and research in health, turning them in active producers of information and knowledge. It offers content and services with high aggregate value and ruled by quality standards with the goal of offering to the user the necessary information to satisfy his or her needs.
The Virtual Library of Health, (BVS in Spanish)] that is part of the Virtual Libraries of Health of Latin America and the Caribbean; promoted by BIREME, that is the Health Information Center of Latin America
and Caribbean, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil
, the Pan-American Health Organization
and the World Health Organization
. It also has the Cuban Virtual University of Health, a virtual convention center
, sites of medical specialties and many other services, such as, directories, bibliographic data bases, health statistics, a collection of lectures and presentations of specialized subjects, diagnostic discussions, inquiries services to experts and other services.
Infomed’s Portal consists of a network of specialized portals of medical sciences and health subjects that are maintained by groups of specialists, scientific societies and libraries and institutional, municipal and provincial information centers. It also offers a daily health news service and specialized information services.
. An important group of them form the collection Scielo Cuba that is part of the Virtual Library of Health
. The Virtual Library of Health also has an important collection of books of medical sciences and health published by Cuban authors.
, one of the main scientific journal
s on the subject of health and information and communication technologies
, published a scientific article
which states that Infomed is a model for the integration of health information in the fields of assistance, research, education and services.
The article shows that the internet and the communication technologies contribute to the infrastructure of the national health systems and they extend to the global markets of the health services. The Cuban system of health offers a model that shows how a national portal of health information can contribute to the integration of such systems including research, education and the offering of services and also the international exchange of products and health services.
The article was written by Ann C. Séror, Ph.D. of the Laval University
, Canada and is online at: http://www.jmir.org/2006/1/e1/
Since its beginnings Infomed was conceived and developed under the concept of a decentralized model
of collective construction. Evidence of this is the development of nodes in all the provinces, the creation of territorial domains, the development of sites and Web page
s at all levels, the sustained incorporation of users and the wide production of content and services during times when blogs, wikis and other present forms of communication did not exist and that today represent the idea of Web 2.0. The development of the network of sites of specialties is an example of this type and the existence of pages of professionals and other groups are important antecedents of what today people are seeking to develop.
For these reasons Infomed tries to develop a health ecosystem of people, services and sources of information supported by products and services of information, communication and excellent collaboration, centered around our users and built with their active participation.
To that effect have the opportunities that offer a set of technological tools and ways to operate the web that will mean a change in the conditions of which stands out the increasing simplification to access technology and the increasing importance of the roll of people and the ways of work in teams and collectives.
Although there are still pending important investment in infrastructure and communications, these are problems that will be solved in the short and medium term. However, the most important challenge is on the side of human resources.
It has been proposed to start designing, implementing and maintaining services aligned with the Infomed 2.0 philosophy. The models are a base, a reference, not a scheme. Each person that uses them must help create or generate new models, continuously improve the existing ones and provide feedback for its use in practice.
History
Infomed started in 1992 as a project to interconnect the information centers and the medical librariesMedical library
A health or medical library is designed to assist physicians, health professionals, students, patients, consumers and medical researchers in finding health and scientific information to improve, update, assess or evaluate health care. Medical libraries are typically found in hospitals, medical...
in Cuba, and it is today a network with national reach. The project has received awards and international recognition, in particular the Stockholm Challenge Award in 2002.
It is a network of people and institutions that share the purpose of facilitating access to information and knowledge to improve the health of the Cuban people and other people of the World, by intensive and creative use of the information and communication technologies.
The first international steps of this network were participating in a project of the Pan-American Health Organization
Pan American Health Organization
The Pan American Health Organization is an international public health agency with over 100 years of experience working to improve health and living standards of the people of the Americas...
and the National Library of Medicine of the USA to access MEDLINE
MEDLINE
MEDLINE is a bibliographic database of life sciences and biomedical information. It includes bibliographic information for articles from academic journals covering medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and health care...
with the help of e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
through the project BITNIS. The network started as an initiative of the Medical Sciences Information National Center, that was founded in 1965 to take care of the information needs of doctors and other health workers.
A characteristic of the project has been the use of the information and communication technologies with a social vision and with the developments of local capabilities. It was the first national network in utilizing the GNU/Linux operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
in all its servers for the development of national content and adequate services to its health system. Since 1994 it has placed the complete texts of the Cuban medical magazines in internet and encouraged the development of specialized sites in the most diverse subjects of the medical sciences and public health.
It provides the users with an opportune and efficient access to quality scientific and technical information assistance, administration, education and research in health, turning them in active producers of information and knowledge. It offers content and services with high aggregate value and ruled by quality standards with the goal of offering to the user the necessary information to satisfy his or her needs.
Development
The network has tens of thousands of users in Cuba and its portal is visited by many users from around the world. The network is composed of libraries and units of information that cover all health areas in the country. It has worked with the model of at least one library in each area of health.The Virtual Library of Health, (BVS in Spanish)] that is part of the Virtual Libraries of Health of Latin America and the Caribbean; promoted by BIREME, that is the Health Information Center of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and Caribbean, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, the Pan-American Health Organization
Pan American Health Organization
The Pan American Health Organization is an international public health agency with over 100 years of experience working to improve health and living standards of the people of the Americas...
and the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
. It also has the Cuban Virtual University of Health, a virtual convention center
Convention center
A convention center is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typically offer sufficient floor area to accommodate several thousand attendees...
, sites of medical specialties and many other services, such as, directories, bibliographic data bases, health statistics, a collection of lectures and presentations of specialized subjects, diagnostic discussions, inquiries services to experts and other services.
Infomed’s Portal consists of a network of specialized portals of medical sciences and health subjects that are maintained by groups of specialists, scientific societies and libraries and institutional, municipal and provincial information centers. It also offers a daily health news service and specialized information services.
Sources of information
Among Infomed’s most important information sources is the collection of the complete text of the main Cuban Medical JournalsMedical journal
A public health journal is a scientific journal devoted to the field of public health, including epidemiology, biostatistics, and health care . Public health journals, like most scientific journals, are peer-reviewed...
. An important group of them form the collection Scielo Cuba that is part of the Virtual Library of Health
Biblioteca Virtual en Salud
In Latin America and the Caribbean, a Biblioteca Virtual en Salud is an institution that employs the World Wide Web to "improve access to reliable, locally relevant information [on health and health sciences] for health-professionals, researchers, academics, educators, decision makers, and the...
. The Virtual Library of Health also has an important collection of books of medical sciences and health published by Cuban authors.
Publications
The Journal of Medical Internet ResearchJournal of Medical Internet Research
The Journal of Medical Internet Research is a peer-reviewed open-access medical journal established in 1999 covering eHealth and "healthcare in the Internet age". It is edited and published by Gunther Eysenbach. The journal is widely regarded as one of the pioneers in open access publishing...
, one of the main scientific journal
Scientific journal
In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. There are thousands of scientific journals in publication, and many more have been published at various points in the past...
s on the subject of health and information and communication technologies
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
, published a scientific article
Academic publishing
Academic publishing describes the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in journal article, book or thesis form. The part of academic written output that is not formally published but merely printed up or posted is often called...
which states that Infomed is a model for the integration of health information in the fields of assistance, research, education and services.
The article shows that the internet and the communication technologies contribute to the infrastructure of the national health systems and they extend to the global markets of the health services. The Cuban system of health offers a model that shows how a national portal of health information can contribute to the integration of such systems including research, education and the offering of services and also the international exchange of products and health services.
The article was written by Ann C. Séror, Ph.D. of the Laval University
Université Laval
Laval University is the oldest centre of education in Canada and was the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French...
, Canada and is online at: http://www.jmir.org/2006/1/e1/
Infomed 2.0 Project
Infomed 2.0 is the name that synthesizes the proposal to move to a new phase of the development of the network that is supported by the collective work of its members. The name was inspired by the concept of Web 2.0 that incorporates the technological, organizational and cultural changes that are being produced in the Internet and particularly in the Web.Since its beginnings Infomed was conceived and developed under the concept of a decentralized model
Decentralised system
Decentralised systems in systems theory are naturally occurring, usually self-regulating systems found which function without an organized center or authority...
of collective construction. Evidence of this is the development of nodes in all the provinces, the creation of territorial domains, the development of sites and Web page
Web page
A web page or webpage is a document or information resource that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser and displayed on a monitor or mobile device. This information is usually in HTML or XHTML format, and may provide navigation to other web pages via hypertext...
s at all levels, the sustained incorporation of users and the wide production of content and services during times when blogs, wikis and other present forms of communication did not exist and that today represent the idea of Web 2.0. The development of the network of sites of specialties is an example of this type and the existence of pages of professionals and other groups are important antecedents of what today people are seeking to develop.
For these reasons Infomed tries to develop a health ecosystem of people, services and sources of information supported by products and services of information, communication and excellent collaboration, centered around our users and built with their active participation.
To that effect have the opportunities that offer a set of technological tools and ways to operate the web that will mean a change in the conditions of which stands out the increasing simplification to access technology and the increasing importance of the roll of people and the ways of work in teams and collectives.
Although there are still pending important investment in infrastructure and communications, these are problems that will be solved in the short and medium term. However, the most important challenge is on the side of human resources.
It has been proposed to start designing, implementing and maintaining services aligned with the Infomed 2.0 philosophy. The models are a base, a reference, not a scheme. Each person that uses them must help create or generate new models, continuously improve the existing ones and provide feedback for its use in practice.