Guiding question: What research do you support, promote, and need to accomplish your goals?

20 people attended our first meeting. A variety of PAHO units were represented, including Gender, Ethnicity and Health; Sustainable Development and Environmental Health; Health Surveillance and Disease Prevention and Control; PAHEF... 

Points of discussion:

• How do you get evidence to the public? (a three-step approach); EVIPNet as an effective tool to accomplish this objective
• How effectively can you integrate research components into your projects/ work of your unit?
• What role do financial and time constraints play here? What kind of research do we need to promote our programs?
• New communication methods for research for health/ new technologies; how to engage the media; success stories within PAHO; source for better credibility
• Publication mapping to identify the gaps, create a network/ common strategy within PAHO to better coordinate/ synergize use and analyze data/ health indicators and, successively, work with political stakeholders