What Iranian health authorities think about the integration of medical education and health services

This present article aims at exploring the Iranian experience of integration of medical education with health services by surveying the viewpoints of the authorities involved in the implementation of the plan.Questionnaires were designed and distributed among 127 senior managers at universities, such as chancellors and vice chancellors, professors, heads of educational departments and those authorities in the ministry of health and medical education who have been involved in the plan for integration since 1993.The findings of the analysis of the questionnaires reveal that the integration plan has been considered as " partly successful" by the majority of the participants. The participants' viewpoints in the open- ended questionnaires indicate the pros and cons in the implementation of the plan.  The result of the analysis is fed back into the system.