Supporting the healthcare landscape in Brazil

Performance indicators revealed that the vast majority of BMJ Learning users accessed more than 10 pages per visit with 58% returning in less than 10 days. „

In the last 20 years, Brazil has developed one of the largest universal healthcare systems in the world with impressive results: „ Infant and maternal mortality have dropped more than 50%, diseases like AIDS and TB no longer pose major threats to society, and access to care even for people in the poorest, most remote areas of the country has been dramatically improved through well-thought-out initiatives. „For the health system to keep up, Brazil needed concentrate more on delivering quality than quantity.

For three years, BMJ helped Brazil raise the quality of patient care and educational material through its partnership with the Brazil Ministry of Health. Between 2012-15, we provided institutions across the whole country of Brazil with our evidence based clinical decision support tool, BMJ Best Practice, and BMJ Learning online modules.

We also localised the content by translating over 300 BMJ Learning modules and the full content, over 1,000 BMJ Best Practice monographs into Portuguese. Its generous uptake was revealed through performance indicators showing that the vast majority of BMJ Learning users accessed more than 10 pages per visit with 58% returning in less than 10 days.

Our dedicated supported teams in Brazil, led by practising clinicians,  created an outreach service comprising of 20 supervisors and coordinators to train regional tutors and clinicians across the country in BMJ Best Practice. We also invested a great deal of time working with the Ministry of Health to create a pilot project based at Brazilian universities, which offered medical students free access to BMJ Learning and BMJ Best Practice. On incorporating BMJ Learning into university coursework Dr. Luiz Eduardo Correia Miranda, Associate Professor of General Surgery and Coordinator of the Medicine Course at Pernambuco State University said, “it is very interesting to be able to add modules from BMJ Learning to the content of the Medicine Course programme, as an active technique of learning.”

The high usage extended to BMJ’s social media sites and online apps which were developed to accommodate clinicians’ growing need to access decision support tools quickly and efficiently. In just a year and a half the BMJ Brazil Facebook page has achieved 11,000 followers. In addition more than 11,400 users have downloaded the BMJ Best Practice app which provides the latest evidence, expert opinion, and guidelines in Portuguese. This helps clinicians to make more informed and faster diagnostic and treatment decisions for their patients. Dr. Júlio Abreu, Associate Professor from Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (MG) appreciated the app’s accessibility and user-friendly design. He said, “The BMJ Best Practice App is fantastic, mainly for the point of care situation. Its usage is very easy, it works offline and the tool is extremely intuitive. The BMJ Best Practice App provides an extra comfort and safety for doctors on duty. It is the instant second opinion at the primary care.”

BMJ's close partnership with the Brazil Ministry of Health has helped support the government’s drive for quality improvement and better outcomes for patients. Today, we partner with the Saudi and Oman Ministries of Health, helping to fulfil the research and educational needs of clinicians in those countries.