the International Webinar on: Empowering national human capacity to support evidence requirement for health Insurance benefit Package revision in I. R. Iran was successfully concluded

The Health Equity Research Center (HERC) was honored to hold a 3 hours long international webinar on Tuesday N0v. 2nd and host special guests such as Dr. Syed Jaffar Hussain, WHO representative to Iran, Dr. Leon Bijlmakers, Radboud University of Medical Center, and Dr. Rob Baltussen, Radboud University of Medical Center, slong with more than 40 participants.

This webinar, which was held from 11 till 14 IRST, was initiated by Dr Alireza Olyaeemanesh, Head of HERC, with a brief welcome to all and warm thanks to the guests and speakers. Dr. Ali akbarisari, Head of National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), as the moderator of the session, thanked all participants and speakers and handed over the panel to Dr. Syed Jaffar Hussain. Dr. Hussain, as the first speaker, started by noting the key role played by insurance coverage in access to and utilization of the care -specially for financially vulnerable populations- and continued with discussing insures’ part in increasing equality and access to care.

The session hosted Dr. Sari as the second speaker, whom during his speech discussed about the necessary indexes and available sources and methods for care and drug prioritization.

The session continued by Dr. Leon Bijlmakers. He started his presentation by explaining the impact of finantioal and payment models on healthcare systems an continued by presenting examples of other countries’ experiences in health insurance package revision. The forth speaker, Dr. Rob Baltussen, mainly discussed hybrid and multi-dimensional approaches to insurance package revisions and finished his talk by presenting data from other countries’ experiences.

Dr. Mohammadreza Mobinizadeh, faculty member at NIHR, as the first lecturer, covered subjects such as: the different models of prioritizing and their implementation in a healthcare setting, and prioritization of research in healthcare during his presentation.

Sessions second lecturer’s, Dr. Sajad Rzavi, presentation focused on COVID-19 care and drug insurance coverage and their challenges.

The final part of the webinar hosted Dr. Mojtaba Nouhi, from Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME), Dr. Kazem Mikaeeli, Head of coverage decision making department, and Reza Jahangiri, from MoHME, as the main lecturers and during their lectures they gave an introduction to the project, its background and importance, while explaining each step and phase (including data gathering, expert panels, patient interviews, etc.) in detail, and reviewing project’s findings, results, ad achievements. Their lectures were concluded by a short presentation of the project’s implications and role in improving healthcare system.

In the end and after a short Q&A panel,Dr. Sari and other present lecturers concluded the webinar by thanking all participants and guests.