Background: National plans have an important role in defining vision, goals, priorities, and action plans. The present paper examined the international experience in developing upstream documents concerning women's health; it regards the necessity of developing Iranian women's health plan. Methods: This review, conducted with search in electronic databases and literature of no limitation in terms of years conducted. The phrases such as "woman health policy", "woman health promotion", "woman health strategy" and "woman health plan” were searched. The criteria based on which the countries were chosen were the degree to which they were developed in health system, health indexes, the accessibility of required information, and the possibility of benchmarking the new methods. Results: Emphasize on gender as a determinant of health, increasing the economic activities of women, decreasing the violence against women, gender-based researches, and inter-sectorial approach are some common items in the women’s health plans in selected countries. The main upstream documents about women health in Iran such as ‘Research policies and principles of women issues’, “Women Charter of Rights in Iran” were not developed and implemented in form of a comprehensive plan so we need to formulate a full women health national plan that summarizes all previous policies with addition of new needed strategies inclusion. Conclusion: Developing a national plan for Iranian women’s health regarding with selected countries experiences makes a long-term vision for health and obtains the institutional and organizational efforts and resources necessary for women health promotion in Iran.

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We conclude that the use of DFX instead of DFO represents a cost-effective use of resources for treatment of iron overload in patients with β-thalassemia from Iran's society perspective.

Objectives To evaluate the effects of rural health insurance and family physician reforms on hospitalization rates in Iran. Methods An interrupted time series analysis of national monthly hospitalization rates in Iran (2003–2014), starting from two years before the intervention. Segmented regression analysis was used to assess the effects of the reforms on hospitalization rates. Results The analyses showed that hospitalization rates increased one year after the initiation of the reforms: 1.55 (95% CI: 1.24–1.86) additional hospitalizations per 1000 rural inhabitants per month (‘immediate effect’). This increase was followed by a further gradual increase of 0.034 per 1000 inhabitants per month (95% CI: 0.02–0.04). The gradual monthly increase continued for two years after the reforms. The higher hospitalization rates were maintained in the following years. We observed a significant increase in hospitalization rates at a national level in rural areas that continued for over 10 years after the policy implementation. Conclusion Primary health care reforms are often proposed for their efficiency outcomes (i.e. reduction in costs and use of hospitals) as well as their impact on improving health outcomes. We demonstrated that in populations with unmet needs, such reforms are likely to substantially increase hospitalization rates. This is an important consideration for successful design and implementation of interventions aimed at achieving universal health coverage in low- and middle-income countries.

BackgroundHaving strategic thinking is necessary in order to anticipate future changes and make strategic decisions. This study was carried out to assess the strategic thinking level in managers and personnel of Ahvaz Jundishapour University of Medical Science (AJUMS) - a public university in Iran.MethodsIt was a cross-sectional and analytical study and all managers (50) as well as a sample of personnel (200) from AJUMS participated in it. A researcher-made questionnaire was used in order to measure four dimensions of strategic thinking, including system thinking, futurism, conceptual thinking, and intelligent opportunism along with demographic and organizational characteristics of respondents. Statistical analysis was done by Freedman ranking test, one-way ANOVA, and Independent-samples t-test in SPSS software version 16.ResultsStrategic thinking in managers (5.62±0.51) and personnel (5.22±0.4), was evaluated at a somewhat high level. The maximum score among strategic thinking dimensions in managers (5.62±0.42) and personnel (5.52±0.43) was related to conceptual thinking that was in “good” level. A significant relationship was seen between intelligent opportunism dimension with job location in managers and education degree in personnel (p≤0.005). Also, there was a significant relationship between future dimension in managers and personnel with education degrees (p≤0.005). There was a significant difference between managers and employees in future dimension (p=0.018).ConclusionIt seems that the participants have acceptable strategic thinking levels, although there is still room for improvement. Therefore, considering the factors such as educational development of managers and personnel can be very useful in this regard.