The Health Policymaking in Iran’s Reference book which was authored by Health Equity Research Center is now officially published.

This book is a product of a 3-year research and scrutiny conducted by Health Equity Research Center’s professors and researchers and serves as a reference and extensive guidebook for healthcare policymaking in the Iranian healthcare setting. We hope that this book would become an established guidebook for both students and stakeholders to be used as a guiding layout in health policy and decision-making processes and courses on our way to improve heahtcare system and equity.

IN THE NAME OF GOD

Multidimensional health, as was defined by WHO more than 7 decades ago that is still valid and relatable, means suitable physical, mental, and social health not just the absence of disease or injury; it is only public policy-making dimensions, especially social policy-making, that is known to be the requirement, indicator, and output of a sustainable society.

Achieving health as defined above is the prerequisite for accurate, informed, and evidence-based policy-making. Simply put, Health policy is the targeted, correct, and timely usage of the numerous available tools such as health economy, local and national experiences of other countries, legal options, research results, and previews interventions in identifying healthcare systems problems, prioritizing agendas, achieving political legitimacy through legal routes, implementing policy-based programs, and regular and systematic monitoring of these policies to improve policy-making cycles and multilateral relations with the global village. This is why there are no doubts about health policy-making, especially evidence-based policy-making being the stepping stone for achieving a developed and equity-oriented healthcare system which is, as mentioned, the pillar of sustainable development.

Since 2013 that I came back to Iran with limited experience and knowledge, when I achieved my teenage dream of becoming a professor at Tehran University of Medical Sciences with much delight, and simultaneously were directly active in healthcare policy-making in Ministry of Health and Education for some years, the need to do away with the mentioned concerns drove me evermore to conduct a worthy project to achieve this goal. That is why I finalized my decision and in August of 2016, I shared the first draft with a group of colleagues, as some of the known experts of this field, from within and outside of Medical Schools and the Ministry of health. Some joined, some either had no time to spare or didn’t want to participate, and others joined along the way, but the important thing is the fact that the present book which is the fruit of 42 months of 15 authors’ endeavors from 8 different Universities and faculties from various geographical parts of our country from different majors such as health and public policy-making, health ethics, epidemiology, and healthcare management is now within your reach.

In the preparation process of this 12-chaptered book, our goal was to inform and improve the knowledge and analytical abilities of students, researchers, professors, and all interested parties and activists of the healthcare setting who are interested and willing to know contexts, definitions, basics, and theories of the science of policy-making and its use in policy-making in Iranian setting and other similar middle-income countries while focusing on the practical usage of these theories in different health-related subjects. In this work, which to our knowledge is the first of its kind according, we tried to introduce and explain some of the health policy-making researches in Iran and other similar countries along with our countries health policies during the previous decades,  by illustrating and analyzing the practical usage and general context of these policies.

Gathering this book took more than 3 years which from one point was due to the universal approach of the book and from another was a result of the need for managing the compilation process, establishing a common language throughout the book, precise and obsessive-like word choosing, avoiding repetition, and simplifying and incorporating translations, which  required long-term precision and cooperation, that I sincerely hope to have achieved.

Now that we are nearing the Norooz eid and the 1st anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, this book is set for your inspections and critiques. The health systems of all countries, including ours, are currently facing fundamental challenges which highlight the need for evidence-driven policy-making even more. I hope that this book, along with other sources, would be of use in achieving this goal and improving our healthcare system.

Dr. Amirhossein Takian
Professor of management, policymaking, and health economy of Public Health School of Tehran University Of Medical Sciences
Author and Editor