The Search for Common Ground: Developing Emergency Medicine in Iran

Abstract

Academic ties between Iran and the United States were extensive before the 1979 revolution in Iran. After 20 years of negligible academic exchanges, there has been a growing trend of professional contacts between the two countries over the past few years. The genuine warmth of friendship and commitment to excellence in emergency medicine (EM) among Iranians has transcended the political barriers to allow international contribution of EM development in the country. Since 1999, there has been a successful academic collaboration between Iranian and U.S. universities to help develop EM in Iran. Today, remarkable progresses have been achieved through recognition of EM as a distinct profession, developing EM residency programs, improving emergency medical services, establishing qualified emergency departments, training faculty and staff, starting physician exchange programs, and building mutual contributions with professionals throughout the world. A supportive policy environment and a high-quality health care system have had incredible impacts on EM development in the country. ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2007; 14:457-462 ª 2007 by the Society for Academic Emergency MedicineKeywords: emergency medicine, Iran, international emergency medicine B efore the 1979 revolution in Iran, the academic ties between Iran and the United States were extensive. Thousands of Iranian students enrolled at American colleges, and American researchers maintained numerous long-term projects in Iran, studying its archaeology, history, faiths, and languages and sharing experiences in medicine. Returning Iranian physicians who were trained in the United States had a great influence on the health care system in the country. Many of these successful alumni are among senior scientists and leaders in the best universities and government ministries. However, after the revolution, for 20 years, ties between academics in the two countries became negligible.Over recent years, growing academic exchanges have started to resume. Professionals from different American universities returned to Iran to discuss exchange efforts and to meet with health professionals. Since 1999, there has been a successful academic relationship between Iranian and U.S. universities to promote emergency medicine (EM) development in the country. Since then, different groups of U.S. professionals have participated in the development of EM in the country. The Iranians' genuine warmth of friendship, enthusiasm for interaction, and commitment to excellence in EM have transcended the political barriers to allow international contribution of EM development in the country. The Iranian government has supported the current academic exchange between Iranian and U.S. universities as an appropriate common ground of interaction.Iran has enjoyed a quality health care system by developing countrywide standards.1-3 Basic health demands, preventative health care needs, and advanced medical services have been addressed, and attention has recently focused on the need for improving the coun...

Exploring the provision of hospital trauma care for road traffic injury victims in Iran: a qualitative approach

“…Few LMIC have specialists in emergency medicine, and in many countries this is not recognized as a specialty of its own. 7 The specialty was developed in Iran in 2000 39 and graduated EMPs have been involved in providing trauma care for several years. The findings of our study showed that the EMPs have improved the delivery of trauma care in their own ED.…”

Barriers and facilitators to provide effective pre-hospital trauma care for road traffic injury victims in Iran: a grounded theory approach

“…The high numbers of formally educated staff in Iran make it possible to develop a comprehensive educational plan for pre-hospital trauma care and to link staff's education and reality (practice) by implementing evidence-based training courses. This can be done by the help of Emergency Medicine Specialists who are perceived to have had an important role in improving the quality of trauma care in recent years [38]. Training staff in BLS, such as Pre-hospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) program [8,31,32] and providing EMT certification [37] have proven to be effective in LMICs.…”

International Perspectives on Emergency Department Crowding

“…There has been no clear policy currently outlined by Iran to handle the issue of ED crowding. Current policies have focused on the development of EM in the country: increasing the number of EDs, the number of EM residency programs, and the number of EM‐trained physicians practicing in the ED 46 . The current goal is to increase Iran’s ED capacity and capabilities.…”