The Regional Database of Health Technology Assessment Reports of the Americas (BRISA) reached 1,000 reports produced by member institutions of the Health Technology Assessment Network of the Americas (RedETSA).

With this tool, a pioneer in the Region, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and RedETSA seek to promote the use of health technology assessment to improve the decision-making process of incorporating technologies in health systems. “The growth of BRISA since its launch is a sign of the consolidation of RedETSA, and another step in the institutionalization of ETS in the Region,” said James Fitzgerald, Director of Health Systems and Services at PAHO.

BRISA seeks to centralize in a single platform the reports produced by the RedETSA institutions, and to give visibility to reports that would otherwise remain dispersed or without access to the public.
BRISA was launched in November 2017, and developed in collaboration with BIREME (Latin American and Caribbean Center for Information on Health Sciences) through the Virtual Health Library, which hosts the database. PAHO, as secretariat of RedETSA, is in charge of the selection and centralization of the reports. The collaboration with BIREME makes possible the crossing of the searched topic with the other available databases, such as LILACS (Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Information) and Medline (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online). In addition, institutions that wish to do so may place the BRISA RSS with their preferred search criteria on their web pages and receive updated content automatically.

BRISA is available in the following link http://sites.bvsalud.org/redetsa/brisa/

Washington, DC, 30 July 2018 (PAHO)- Brazilian Doctor, Jarbas Barbosa da Silva has been named the new assistant director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Office for the Americas.

The new assistant director will be in charge of overseeing the technical cooperation programs provided by PAHO to the organization’s 35 Member States. These technical areas include Family, Gender and Life Course; Communicable Diseases and Environmental Determinants of Health; Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health; Sustainable Development and Equity in Health; Evidence and Intelligence for Health Action; and Health Systems Services.

The Director of PAHO, Dr. Carissa F. Etienne, recently appointed Barbosa to the post of deputy director, based in the organization’s Washington DC headquarters. Barbosa replaces Dr. Francisco Becerra, who held the position since 2013.

Barbosa was President and Director of Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) from July 2015 until July 2018, after having worked since 2011 at the Brazilian Ministry of Health, first as the Secretary of Health Surveillance, and later as Secretary of Science, Technology and Strategic Supplies.

For more information go to: https://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14529%3Abrazilian-doctor-appointed-assistant-director-of-paho&catid=1443%3Aweb-bulletins&Itemid=135&lang=en

The Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Government present a Draft Bill; it is not yet the finished product.  Therefore, the Government is consulting further with the public before the presentation to Parliament for the First Reading, on 20th August 2018.

Source: http://www.gov.vc/index.php/39-news/879-notice-of-draft-medicinal-cannabis-industry-bill

From July 23 to 25, the Meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) with experts from the National Regulatory Authorities (ARN) in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires will be held in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. response to public consultation of the global assessment tool (GBT) of regulatory systems.

Among the objectives of the meeting is to improve the tool according to the recommendations suggested in the public consultation process and the feedback of the representatives of the National Regulatory Authorities (ARN) that have provided advice to WHO and PAHO; support the development and definition of quantitative indicators to be included in the tool; and to agree on the training requirements and competences of the evaluators.

For more information go to https://www.argentina.gob.ar/noticias/inicio-en-buenos-aires-la-reunion-de-autoridades-regulatorias-nacionales-convocada-por-la

The Minister of Health of the Nation, Adolfo Rubinstein, today led the meeting of high technical level that since yesterday maintain teams of the national health portfolio and representatives of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for the region, with the objective of moving forward jointly in the strategy of expanding access to low-cost medicines and establishing new criteria for coverage of medical technology, one of the main axes of management.

“Two of the ministry’s main objectives are related to expanding access to medicines based on price reductions and improving the coverage conditions of medical technologies, in relation to more objective, more explicit and more transparent criteria” , defined Rubinstein.

The official stressed in that sense that “PAHO is an institution with a lot of experience and expertise and this is a working meeting with the technical team of the agency and the technical teams of the ministry, the ANMAT and the different departments that work in these issues, to agree on the strategies to improve those objectives, “he said after referring that the meeting also served to analyze the guidelines related to the registration, authorization and control of medicines.

For more information go to https://www.argentina.gob.ar/noticias/con-apoyo-de-la-ops-argentina-avanza-en-la-estrategia-para-ampliar-el-acceso-medicamentos

El Salvador receives experts from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for the process of reevaluation of the country’s Pharmaceutical Regulatory System, within the framework of the certification process, whose objective is to reach Level IV, granted by this international organization.
This evaluation is carried out from July 17 to 20 at the facilities of the National Directorate of Medicines (DNM). In this stage, the modules referring to the National Pharmacovigilance System, integrated by the MINSAL and the DNM, are evaluated.

Among the appointed evaluators is Dr. José Peña, leader of the evaluation team, Dr. Ariel Arias, pharmacovigilance expert of Health Canada and Dr. Murilo Freitas, regional advisor of PAHO. At the opening ceremony were present the heads of the two institutions involved, Dr. Violeta Menjívar, Minister of Health, Dr. Julio Robles Ticas, Deputy Minister of Health Services, Dr. Leonor Morales de Acosta, National Director of Drugs and Dr. Hilda Leal, health services systems consultant for OPS, El Salvador.

For Dr. Menjívar this is a transcendental step in the development of the country and considers that a strong regulatory authority also strengthens the national pharmaceutical industry, guaranteeing the quality, safety and efficacy of medicines and giving it international prestige.

Dr. De Acosta expressed that: “Strengthening as a health agency has been possible thanks to the decided support of the Government of the Republic through President Salvador Sánchez Cerén, and also to the accompaniment by the holders of the Ministry of Health who have placed pharmaceutical regulation as a priority issue in the country’s agenda “.

The head of the National Directorate of Medicines also thanked the support that other countries have given El Salvador, to strengthen its regulatory powers, including: Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Spain, Argentina, among others.

“The horizon of all our actions is the health of the population, guaranteeing safe, effective, quality medicines at a fair price” and “we are ready for the re-evaluation of the Regulatory System” concluded Dr. de Acosta.
More information through the link in Spanish http://www.medicamentos.gob.sv/index.php/es/secciones-m/noticias-dnm/269-proceso-de-reevaluacion