About the VHL
The Virtual Health Library is accessed as the base for the dissemination of scientific and technical health knowledge electronically recorded, organized and stored. Permanent monitoring guarantees the quality of its content.
The VHL architecture has been conceived to ensure that information sources decentralized in their production are connected on line with a view to maximizing visibility and accessibility.
To achieve such goals, information sources are to be created, organized, structured and expanded following compatible methodologies which are being developed within the VHL context under BIREME/PAHO coordination.
The VHL is an integral part of the scientific information flow in Latin-American countries, Spain and Portugal, constantly fostering its strengthening and objectives to provide equitable universal access to relevant information sources.
It has been conceived so that users with different levels and from diverse geographical locations can interact and browse through each and every information source.
Its fundamental basis is that access to scientific and technical information is a crucial and indispensable factor if the required socio-economic development is to become a continuous, sustained process that meets users’ needs and enables them to achieve their goals.
It is focused on the following basic principles:
Equitable access to health information
Promotion of consortiums and agreements that allow the shared use of resources
Collaborative work
Decentralized development and operation
Systematic application of evaluation and quality control mechanisms
The proposal for the O-VHL arises from the need to dissemínate, integrate and share papers and relevant updated information in oncology and related areas
Its main objective is to ensure quick and efficacious access to information through a selection, organization and dissemination process in a virtual medium, providing professors, researchers and students with efficient and equitable access to Internet based products.
The project to develop the ONCOLOGY VHL – O-VHL – started in the year 2002 as an initiative exclusively funded by the Honorary Committee to Fight Against Cancer (CHLCC), and it is available since August 2002. It is the Committee’s policy not to receive funding from advertising.
It is worth pointing out that the O-VHL has a strict confidentiality policy, therefore the site users’ personal information received via electronic mail, the content of the messages as well as the opinión given is not available to third parties.
The Project, developed by the Cancer Documentation and Information Center (CDIC), was awarded BIREME/PAHO certification as institutional theme VHL in 2009.
The VHL migrated to the current VHL Site 5.2.11, and has been accessible as from 2008. Even though we are still actively working to obtain accreditation as a regional theme VHL, many are the stages yet to be jointly completed, and with the special BIREME/PAHO advice.
Lic. Dinorah González
CDIC Coordinator