Date: 11/7/2010
TUMSPR News: High-ranking delegates from the World Health Organization and its office in the Mediterranean region met with Dr. Bagher Larijani on October 26, 2010 for a more focused collaboration to curb the burden of non-communicable diseases.
On October 26, 2010, a high-ranking delegation composed of the officials of the World Health Organization (WHO) and its office in the Mediterranean region met with Dr. Bagher Larijani for a more focused collaboration to curb the burden of non-communicable diseases which is growing in epidemic proportions in the region. The meeting coincided with the two-day regional consultation which was held by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education at Tehran University of Medical Sciences and participated by delegates from countries in the EMRO region, vice-chancellors for health from different medical sciences universities throughout the country and authorities from UN and WHO country offices in Iran.
In his opening remarks, TUMS Chancellor introduced the University in terms of education, research and its strategies to promote public health, and hinted at the new strategies which were going to be implemented by TUMS Deputy for Health for the control of non-communicable diseases at the district health center levels to health houses and health posts in the next few weeks.
Dr. Ibtihal Fadhil, the EMRO’s Regional Advisor for Non-communicable Diseases, talking on diabetes and osteoporosis, said WHO is in collaboration with more than 800 centers for the prevention and control of osteoporosis in the world, some having been in place for 10—20 years but WHO has decided to close down the ones which are inactive or do not follow its proposed strategies. She then emphasized on the importance of collaboration for education and research at regional level in support of WHO which would enable policy makers to prioritize strategies. She said that the main goals of WHO were to screen and render public health services regarding NCDs. She then noted the absence of valid statistics about osteoporosis and the need to bridge the gap by experts.
Confirming Dr, Ebtihals’ sayings, Dr. Larijani attracted the attention towards a similar situation about diabetes as some people might be unaware of the disease they were living with and said the University has taken steps to fill the gap in this direction too by holding educational programs for physicians, health workers. He added that education of people has been also one of the priorities and the University has published tens of pamphlets, launched virtual medium and held numerous face-to-face classes. He believed the Persian publications might be of use in Persian-speaking countries in the region too.
Dr. Hifa Madi, EMRO’s director for Health Protection and Promotion, congratulated the University for the Undertaken tasks and said that WHO intends to promote the role of the University and also the country fro merely following its strategies to a level that they could help create guidelines for the management and control f NCDs at the regional level and said they were searching for a center of this kind for the aforesaid purpose and showed her discontent of the centers in the region that are quite inactive in this regard and exemplified a diabetes center in the Persian Gulf which had not effectively engaged in diabetes control and said WHO was not going to duplicate such centers.
Dr. Madi then satisfactorily mentioned that Dr. Larijani’s present position at the head of the state’s health policy-making committee offered greater opportunities for more fruitful collaborations.
Affirming Dr. Madi’s comments, Dr. larijani said that a network with 25 research centers which were monitoring osteoporosis, diabetes and hypertension and other NCDs, and doing research in those areas has been launched in the country to obtain valid statistics and employ the strategies. He then talked about the plans for a change in the curriculum of master of public health (MPH) for a more applicability for NCD control and said the University was ready to recruit students [usually medical doctors and dentists] for such classes in the region as it was already holding classes in collaboration with Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Turkey.
Bahrain Health Minister, Dr. Faisal Al Hamar, admiring the vastness of the University’s undertakings in the health, education and research said he was here for more solid collaborations with the University and said one of his priorities were to launch a digital library and said we look forward to use your experience in this regard and also for other mutual terms of interest and presented a gift from his government to the chancellor.
Dr. Niknam, the director of the International Relations of the Ministry of health and Medical Education also proposed the distance medical education TUMS was offering on its site and to its recent MOU with American Telemedicine Association which would pave the way for better cooperation and welcomed the notion of joint research and guideline preparation at the regional level by the Ministry and the University.
Dr. Ala Alwan, the Assistant-director General of WHO referring to the vast human resources in the region and the readiness of the University to offer greater help in the control of NCDs in Iran and the region, hoped the collaborations would reach newer heights.
Picture gallery.
http://publicrelations.tums.ac.ir/gallery/detail.asp?galleryID=2081
http://publicrelations.tums.ac.ir/english/news/detail.asp?newsID=20067
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