The Health Equity Research Center assembled a national webinar titled “Equity in Health During COVID-19” on Dec 1, 2020, with goals of addressing and discussing the different aspects and impacts of the corona-virus pandemic on equity in health -specially in ours and neighboring countries.

The webinar started at 8 o’clock (national time) by a short speech from Dr. Takian, the vice director of Health Equity Research Center and the moderator of the meeting, explaining the webinar’s agenda, noting the importance of the issue of equity in health and a general description of the Health Equity Research Center, our mission and goals. As speakers the webinar hosted Dr. Olyaeemanesh, the director of Health Equity Research Center, Dr. Haghdoost, the ministry of health’s deputy of education, Dr. Ghanei, biotechnology headquarters’s Secretary, and Dr. Majdzadeh, Tehran university of medical sciences’ statistics and epidemiology department’s professor.

The first speaker of this online session -with outstanding attendance- was Dr. Olyaeemanesh, the director of Health Equity Research Center; starting the meeting with presenting the available data, analyzing the published articles, discussing the role of the social determinants of health, and noting the current trends of this pandemic shining a light on our current grasp of the virus and the situation it has created.

This presentation was followed by our second guest speaker Dr. Haghdoost,  the ministry of health’s deputy of education, forecasting future progress patterns of the pandemic; its varied outcomes on health, equity, and mental health; and lastly, discussing whether or not it would end in an improvement of health and equity for the nation.

As our third guest speaker Dr. Ghanei, biotechnology headquarters’s Secretary, discussed the technological aspects of the corona virus pandemic. In his speech he talked about the ways to effectively distribute resources, vaccine advancements, and the impacts of U.S. sanctions on our countries response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As our last guest speaker Dr. Majdzadeh, Tehran university of medical sciences’ statistics and epidemiology department’s professor, began his presentation with an explanation of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), medical and essential care costs in Iran; Continuing his speech he then displayed COVID-19 related data from EMRO (WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region), discussed the impact of this pandemic on neighboring countries and compared similarities.

This 2 hours long session was brought to an end with a short panel for Q&A, our guest speakers answering some of the questions from our online audience.

The recording of this webinar along with the presented files are available in the provided links below for those who could not participate, yet find interest in the raised issues.

The Health Equity Research Center is the official research center for equity of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences. During the short time since our creation (4 years) we have been studying the status of equity in our country, conducting national and international researches, assembling meetings and workshops, and are proud to announce that by highlighting the issue of equity in health systems and social responsibilities (for both the policymakers and the people) we have been aspiring to help achieve equity in our countries healthcare system.