The objective of BIREME is to contribute to health development for the populations of the Region of the Americas, promoting cooperation among countries, the democratization of access to scientific and technical information, legislation and the sharing of knowledge and evidence to support steady improvement of the health, education and research systems.

To meet its objective, BIREME has the following technical cooperation functions, included in the Regional Strategic Plan of PAHO:

• Support and strengthen health sciences information systems in PAHO Member States.
  
  
• Help develop and strengthen public health actions and policies and national and regional capacities and infrastructure for the acquisition, organization, access, publication, and use of information, knowledge, and scientific evidence regarding health processes and decision-making.
  
  
• Help develop and strengthen networks of institutions and individual producers, intermediaries, and users of scientific, legal, technical, and factual information in health through the cooperative management and operation of information products, services, and events in the common forum of the Virtual Health Library (VHL), in cooperation with the complementary national, regional, and international networks.
  
  
• Contribute to the global development of health sciences information and communication through partnerships, programs, networks, and projects among international, regional, and national institutions, with a view to increasing the visibility, access, quality, use, and impact of the scientific and technical output of developing countries and regions. 5. Help develop health science and technical terminology in Spanish, French, English, and Portuguese.
  
  
• Help develop distance education systems in the Region of the Americas, through infrastructure and capacity-building for access to and the dissemination of information as an integral part of PAHO’s Virtual Public Health Campus.
  
  
• Support and promote collaboration among governments, professionals, health workers, consumers, related scientific institutions and international organizations, and society at large to establish and strengthen national health information systems that promote education and ongoing research through innovation and the application of information and communication technologies.