challenges of community oriented medical education in iran

introduction: community-orientated medicine (come) is a topical area for debate in the current discussion about medical education, but it can be agued that medical education has always been in the community because medical practice is located therein. in this study the status of come in all universities were evaluated by educational development center (edc) of ministry of health and medical education in iran. methods: a multi centric qualitative investigation using focus group discussion with purposive sampling has been implemented successfully for developing swot analysis. steering committees of 38 medical universities and other stakeholders participated to this study. results: the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the come in the country were recognized. community oriented medical education status was determined and factors causing the analysis were been: systematic analysis of study results(input, process and output) for some categories, including mission and vision, motivation, training and management structure, educational structure (curriculum), research, communication, physical structures and equipment, and monitoring and evaluation were identified. conclusion: results of this study amplify the necessity of supports of health decision makers and fundamental change in the overall process of implementing educational programs and promote them thoroughly in iran.