Health in the news: 75,000 new annual cancer cases in Iran

Dr Mohagheghi, the chief of Tehran University Institute of Cancer, said that 200,000 patients with cancer live in the currently and each year 75,000 new cases are diagnosed as having a type of cancer. 30,000 cancer patients die in Iran each year he added.
Source: www.aftabeyazd.com , No: 2005, Feb, 10 2007
Code: 24N

Priorities of the Ministry of Health for the next four years

Seyed Hassan Hashemi , MD, and the new minster of health explained the priorities of the Ministry of Health (MOH) for the next five years. Meeting the needs for [essential] pharmaceuticals is the first and the foremost first task of the MOH he stated. He acknowledged the unmet needs of patients with hard-to-treat conditions. Establishing a single payer system is what MOH will accomplish as its most important mission in the coming four-year term according to him. Improving and expanding the family physician network was what Dr. Hashemi described as a parallel important plan for the MOH.

My comment: It seems that essential drug supply is the right immediate mission for the MOH. Single payer system helps integrate the medical care in Iran. This is doable because less than 2% of the health insurance coverage is provided by private medical insurances. Family physician network is essential as well but is a rather difficult task to accomplish. With more than 90% of outpatient care being in private sector enforcing the referral guidelines and managing the provider payment system is quite challenging.

Source: It's an interview in Farsi posted on youtube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=c4-overview&v=5AEgpDjaoOw&list=UUI01l6WXUWeKEpaNJD3x6fQ&desktop_uri=/watch?v=5AEgpDjaoOw&feature=c4-overview&list=UUI01l6WXUWeKEpaNJD3x6fQ&nomobile=1

150 pulmonologist (lung diseases subspecialist) for 77 million Iranians

Dr. Katayoun Najafi Zadeh MD, the chair of Organ Donation Center of Shahid Beheshti Medical University in Tehran-Iran,  says we should increase this number to 1500 in order to meet the needs of our population. Najafi Zadeh believes that if number of pulmonologists in Sweden was the right benchmark we would already train around 4000 of these specialists.

My comment: There are two problems here: 1) the distribution , and 2) the absolute low number. Medical specialists in developing countries tend to provide services in big cities. This is very true about Iran as well. The low number of pulmonologists regardless of where they practice seems to be a serious issue. However, it seems like Iran has to have its own health service provision map rather than looking at western benchmarks. Training more sub-specialist physicians cannot be an optimal solution in a system with disintegrated care for chronic conditions. In fact, more sub-specialist does not guarantee more efficient ( high quality at lower cost) medical care.

Source: Tasnim News, Tasnim News ID: 112574 ; URL: http://www.tasnimnews.com/Home/Single/112574 accessed August 7, 2013