Family Physician Implementation and Preventive Medicine; Opportunities and Challenges

Review of Iran’s experiences regarding health following Islamic Revolution suggests that two major events influenced on health system structure; establishment of Primary Health Care (PHC) and integration of medical education in former ministry of health and formation of Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME). Both of these important developments began in the first decade after the revolution resulting from immediate needs of the country and spirit of social justice that dominated the country. In fact, these two major events occurred for development of health services to disadvantages parts of the country, especially rural and remote areas, as well as provision of human resources for delivering necessary health services. Outcome of development, in various social and economical aspects, and interventions in the health system had sharp improvements in important health indicators such as maternal mortality, life expectancy, control of infectious diseases and provision of manpower. After three decades, now the country is on the verge of running family physician and referral system plan in the cities, which is the third milestone in the restructuring of health services. Of course to achieve this point, years of planning and dialogue in the country’s high levels of policymaking have been done. Iran initiated implementation of this plan in rural areas, secondly, cities with less Knowledge Utilization Research Center, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran