An Evaluation of the Performance of Iran’s Medical University Websites with Respect to Healthcare Reform Plan

Health Reform Plan is being implemented in line with its high goals including health equity. One of the important points that contributes to this goal and is included in the healthcare reform system map is the attention to the capabilities of websites and their services. Therefore, this study has aimed at the evaluation of the performance of Iran’s medical university websites with respect to Reform Plan.

This descriptive survey research is to measure the performance of websites in accordance with the goals set out in the Health Reform Plan map and to use the IT checklist as a template. Data were analyzed for all 44 universities in 2018 and the descriptive statistical analysis was done by using SPSS. The score of each university was evaluated according to the average total score of observing the indicators related to each question so that the highest score per question for each university is one and the lowest score is zero and the average score is 0.5.

 Only 11 universities received above the average score of 44 universities. Shiraz University with 0.86, Tabriz University with 0.76, Sabzevar University with 0.74, and Urumieh University with 0.70 scores ranked first to fourth, respectively. In addition, no goals have been achieved for the goals mentioned in universities of medical sciences.

The university websites have been struggling to meet the goals of the Reform Plan, especially in deprived areas and type 2 and type 3 universities. Electronic welfare services including appointment scheduling website and other websites have been created on these websites, and this has led to a change in the use of websites that used to give information and now they render services.