accreditation, as an approach to quality assurance and improvement, has a hundred-year history in the united states. other countries have started to establish such systems in the past twenty years. recently, we have witnessed numerous discussions and some practical steps toward establishing accreditation systems in iran. a major practical challenge for such newer accreditation systems is that a...

The Middle East has always been of interest to other countries for its geopolitical position and its vast supply of oil and gas. Meanwhile, the issue of the transfer of oil by sea is of great importance. The Strait of Hormuz is perhaps one of the most important blue-water in the world due to the geographical location of the Persian Gulf to the Free Seas. The world's superpowers, like the United...

historically, the majority of immigrants to the united states came from european countries. the 1965 immigration reform act (ira) fundamentally changed the configuration of immigrants to the united states. the largest immigrant communities now consist of latin americans, asians, and africans. another important development in immigrant communities in the past few decades has been the growth of a...

BACKGROUND Switching or reclassifying medicines with established safety profiles from prescription to non-prescription aims to increase timely consumer access to medicines, reduce under-treatment and enhance self-management. However, risks include suboptimal therapy and adverse effects. With a long-standing government policy supporting switching or reclassifying medicines from prescription to n...

In 2010, the United States adopted its first-ever comprehensive set of health system reforms in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Implementation of the law, though politically contentious and controversial, has now reached a stage where reversal of most elements of the law is no longer feasible. The controversial portions of the law that expand affordable health insurance coverage to most U.S. cit...