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introduction of innovations. However, our previous two descriptions of the Iraq health care system showed that the Iraq healthcare system was not witnessing worth mentioning improvement, but experiencing failures that ABSTRACT Background: Healthcare systems throughout the world are witnessing improvements that have been attributed to explosion in knowledge and introduction of innovations. However, our previous two descriptions of the Iraq health care system showed that the Iraq healthcare system was not witnessing worth mentioning improvement, but experiencing failures that have been attributed to corruption and lack of real leadership .The aim of this paper is to provide an updated description of the healthcare system before covid-19 based on the most recently available unpublished data. Materials and Methods: More recently available unpublished information about healthcare system in Iraq were identified and reviewed. There were more than 100 relevant unpublished information documents including official reports and documents of the Iraqi Ministry of Health and Iraqi Ministry of Planning. In addition, recently available relevant useful information available at internet web sites. The obtainable data were classified into the following categories: Demographic data relevant to healthcare, data about the organizational structure of the healthcare system, the national healthcare policies including national healthcare mission, vision, strategic goals and plans, data healthcare system financing, data about healthcare services delivery, data about the workforce in the Iraq healthcare system, data about maternal and child health, data about infectious diseases, information about chronic disorders and main causes of morbidity and mortality, information about medical education and healthcare education, data about professional training and development, and data about leadership in healthcare. Some relevant healthcare information for three provinces (The Kurdish provinces in the north of Iraq) of the eighteen provinces in Iraq was not available in English or Arabic.

Malignancies have been increasingly regarded as one of the main challenges to healthcare systems throughout the world. Malignant diseases were reported by the World Health Organization to be the second leading cause of death throughout the world accounting for about sixth of all deaths during the year 2018. There has been increasing interest in the historic patterns of malignant disease which can help in establishing understanding of the possible changes of pattern of cancer. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the pattern of malignancy in Iraq during the previous half century. The top five cancers reported in Iraq during ten-year period (1976-1985) were different from the top cancers throughout the world as reported by the World Health Organization during the previous years. The pattern of malignant disease in Iraq during the years 2000 to 2004 was rather different from the pattern of malignancies in other countries like United States of America. The incidence rate of new cases of malignancies were increasing during the previous decades as it was 38.91/100,000 population in 1994, 52.8\100,000 in 2006, and 82.62/100,000 population in 2018. The pattern of cancers in Iraq was not very similar to the latest global pattern reported by the World Health Organization. In addition, the pattern of childhood cancers in Iraq witnessed some changes during the previous decades.

Cardiovascular diseases including ischemic heart diseases continue to be the leading cause of mortality in Iraq and many other countries in the world. As early as the 1980s, the relationship between increased physical fitness and reduction of morbidity and mortality from chronic disease, particularly cardiovascular diseases has been increasingly recognized. Therefore, the need for simple preventive exercises and predictive exercise tests has been increasingly demanded. The aim of this educational mini-review is to highlight the preventive and predictive values of simple exercises (Stair-climbing, squat, and push-up), and also to present the relevant expert opinion.

Background: Williams syndrome which is also called "Williams-Beuren syndrome" is a mental retardation syndrome associated with aortic arch stenosis, and is generally results from deletion of chromosome 7q11.23. The syndrome has been recognized as early as 1961, but the associated neuropsychiatric abnormalities remained without specific treatment.