Transformation of Medical Research in Iran: 1980 to 2040

There has been a remarkable rise in medical research in Iran during the last 40 years, improving the global ranking of the country in the production of research documents from 54th to 16th in 2022. The aim of this review was to summarize medical research activities in Iran during the last 40 years and present predictions on the outlook of this field in coming years.

Related articles were retrieved from the Iran Doc Engine, and selected sections of three editions of the book “Health in the Islamic Republic of Iran” were reviewed.

Between 1980 and 2000, there was a remarkable rise in the number of medical universities and related schools in Iran. The number of students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, as well as PhD courses and residency programs, considerably increased in the country, in parallel with the debut of numerous clinical subspecialty programs in various clinical fields. Research centers and institutes were developed in many universities. Between 2001 and 2020, there was an extraordinary increase in the number of annual publications in medical fields. Citations to Iranian research articles have also increased. For the next 20 years, innovations in research activities and productions are expected to resolve many problematic issues in Iran’s health sector. Activities such as nurturing young, talented, and distinguished researchers, supporting scholars, devising more appropriate tools for the evaluation of the output, impact, and effectiveness of scientific productions, increasing the share of research from Growth National Product (GNP), and enhancing targeted research programs will be needed to safeguard the emerging goals of research activities in the next two decades.