Health system priorities based on needs assessment & stakeholder's participation in I.R. Iran

Nowadays, there is a growing demand for prioritizing research activities based on the subjects associated with health care. In fact, health resources have not increased in developing countries, and despite the increased burden of diseases in these countries, the research budget allocated to dealing with health related issues has not increased in developing countries. Priority setting in health system is a response to the current challenges. For the priority setting process to be collective and participative, involvement of all stakeholders concerned could prove helpful. In the present article, the priorities in health system were set through needs assessment.

This project was formulated by needs assessment and involvement of the interested stakeholders as well as users of the health services with the aim of priority setting in health care system in 7 provinces of the country. A unique guideline was proposed to the executing universities as a preliminary guide. The project was implemented using qualitative and quantitative methods.

Results of the prioritization of the problems in health system indicate that accidents have the highest frequency, with the environment, water and food health ranking second in frequency.

It is the duty of health care system of a country to resolve its health problems. To this end, primarily, problems should be identified. Accordingly, the limitations of the priorities set by the health system must be recognized, and research titles have to be determined for each. The basis of this process is the consensus of the stakeholders concerned on the priority lists.