فصلنامه طب و تزکیه
سال بیست و هفتم شماره 4 (پیاپی 110، زمستان 1397)

Science and technology policy making has recently been considered, due to the complexity of the decision-making environments in the world. Medical higher education is one of the subsets of science and technology systems in which future-oriented policy making is particularly important because of the changing environment of health systems and the need to respond to this changes.
Since the formation of the ministry of health and medical education in Iran, some efforts have been made for medical education policy making, which has often been reactive and has not been properly implemented. The program for the reform and innovation in medical education as the first future-oriented policy making experience in the field of medical higher education in Iran began in 2015 And is being implemented using the spatial planning program and a multilevel system. This paper examines the dimensions and patterns of higher education and policy-making experiences of higher education in Iran.

In the field of medical sciences' postgraduate discipline, the High education's index has specific role and position because of all-inclusive impressiveness on several parts of individual and social life among the health protection and its promotion and also the expanse of national and international scientific collaborations. In the present writing, the situation of postgraduates' health education at the scope of medical basic sciences has been surveyed during 40 years after victory of the Islamic revolution in comparison with its past period. The data needed for fulfilling this survey has been obtained with seeking between available documentations and enactments issued by responsible departments of deputy for education which have legal duty for supervision upon the postgraduate programs such as council of the education for medical basic sciences, health and professionals. Before the Islamic revolution, education in medical basic sciences had been limited just to 17 Master courses at a few number of Iranian Universities and other for high educational centers. Available data about the Ph.D. courses at that period indicate the training of 2 programs respectively in immunology and the second one as, epidemiology had been run only at Tehran University. Glorious Islamic revolution predisposed backgrounds of the salient growth and prominent development of medical basic sciences around the Country which resulted to 81 Master curriculum and 61 Ph.D. programs respectively in 901 and 388 course-places are training right now. The statistical study on situation of academic education's development for medical basic sciences' disciplines demonstrates the noticeable quantitative growth in Master and Ph.D. degrees and also registered medical Universities during a 40 yearly spam. There are solemn attentions to the pattern development of academic disciplines coincidentally with daily requirements of the Country and even with more considerations on the quality of education process.

Since the beginning of the third millennium, the word e-learning has been used and is still expanding. Today, the term refers to the use of online technologies to strengthen the teaching-learning process and gain knowledge and skills. The aim of this study was to investigate the evolution of electronic learning in Iran's medical sciences universities and the introduction of Virtual University of Medical Sciences. The present study is a case study using a documentary analysis and review of texts including a series of articles published in the field of electronic learning in Iran, as well as a collection of approvals of the High Council for Medical Planning and the Council for the Development of Medical Sciences Universities and Virtual University of Medical Sciences. Virtual University of Medical Sciences has been established in 1394 to promote the education, research, production and promotion of science and the extension of knowledge boundaries in the field of cyberspace and in pursuit of the goals of the development plan and innovation in medical education. The university is also committed to helping the development of virtual education in medical science universities and the development of necessary infrastructures for all universities in the country. Virtual virtual medicine university has taken steps to develop electronic learning, realization of educational justice and creation of virtual educational opportunities. It seems that in case of the support and fulfillment of the missions of this university, we will see more development in the field of e-learning at the level of medical universities of the country.

The quantity and quality of dental education is important in order to meet the medical needs of the community. The educational progress of this science and the development and development of dental schools after the victory of the revolution reminded us of the necessity of changing outdated and old exercises. This study was conducted to determine the extent of realization of the educational program goals and the lack of information about it. Data was collected from all dental schools of Iran from 1357 to 1397.  The present study is a descriptive-analytical type of applied research in terms of purpose. The Statistical community of this study included all the scientific evidence of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education and all dental schools of medical universities of all over the country. The factors such as the number of dental schools, the number of branches of dentistry, the status of book publishing and other factors were compared and evaluated.  The scientific output of dental schools seems to have had a good upward trend over the past 40 years, and they have a good position in this regard.

Scientific associations are known as the ` base of civil society ' and it is a bridge between the government and the people. The use of NGOs and nongovernmental associations’ potentials is one of the most important specify of modern societies. Scientific associations are unique because of overcoming the weaknesses of non - scientific entities and make synergy. One of the most important goals and functions of these associations is development scientific educational and research collaboration. This is proper platform to recognize, encourage, guide and exchange experiences between scientists.
Medical science associations in Iran have efforts in realization health system goals. These associations collaborate with ministry of health, universities and research centers and their activities related to planning, implementing, evaluating and revising educational programs and research projects for the health system promotion. In this article, forty years experiences of medical sciences education system of Iran in development medical science associations presented could be benefit for other countries.

The aim of this study was to develop and implement a national accreditation system for virtual centers and schools of Universities of Medical Sciences, according to Ministry of Health and Medical Education policies, which are documented in the package of Medical Education Innovation Plan. In this study the expertise oriented approach and accreditation model was chosen for evaluation. At the first step an extensive library study was performed and accreditation and quality assurance systems in developed countries were assessed extensively. Then an expert committee including medical educationists and e-learning specialists was organized. The draft of standards and consequent rules and regulation of accreditation body were designed. Afterward all standards were finalized through a national Delphi process among all eLearning stakeholders around the country. These documents were legislated in Ministry of Health and Medical Education. The standards consisted of four main domains: governance (5 standards), infrastructure (6 standards), educational affairs (5 standards) and consultation and support (3 standards). Currently this system is being used for evaluation of virtual centers of Universities of Medical Sciences in Iran.

In order to achieve the goals of the packages of reform and innovation in the medical science education, including the promotion of the system of evaluation and medical examinations, decentralization and fair implementation in the health education system, changing the process of holding the second stage of the entrance exam of Ph.D in medical universities was considered by the Secretariat of the Council for Education of Health and Basic Medical Sciences. In order to determine the framework for the implementation of the second phase of the Ph.D entrance exam (interview), the views of medical education faculty members and practitioners and responsible for holding examiners in the medical sciences universities were gathered during the sessions using panel experts' techniques. In the next stage, a structured test was designed by MMI method, interview team members were empowered. Then necessary activities were taken, including the creation of a portal for uploading volunteers' educational and research documents, the preparation of interview checklist as well as monitoring coordination sessions between executive universities. After determining the location of the interview and setting the time of performance, in order to admit of 953 students in 63 fields of study (174 educational groups), 3868 eligible candidates were introduced to universities for the interview. Interviews were held at 24 universities. To hold a structured interview 1800 professors participated.

The packages for reform and innovation in medical education have been implemented as the main policies of Iran’s medical education since 2015. The faculty members of medical universities have identified as the main stakeholders of this policies. This study was conducted to survey the stakeholder’s information.
This study was conducted in three steps including Sampling from faculty members of the medical universities of Iran, by cluster sampling method, Data collection through telephone inquiry and Analysis of information in two categories of quantitative and qualitative information.
More than 63% of the faculty members were aware of the implementation of the packages for reform and innovation in medical education, and the university meeting was the main way to get this information. The policies for move to third-generation universities is more interesting for the participants than other reform and innovation policy packages. Educational dynamics and related issues are the most prevalent among Strengths mentioned by participants, as well as the lack of notification processes are the main point of weaknesses mentioned in implementing the packages of reform and innovation in Medical education.
There are significant differences in faculty members' knowledge about the packages for reform and innovation in medical education in different spatial areas of Iran. Totally, although the notification activities about reform and innovation plan in medical education was effective, but it needs to be strengthened and planned more accurately and more efficiently, through more effective methods such as the holding academic meetings for staffs.

A long-term vision is essential for create world-class universities and implementation. In the current competitive environment, universities must achieve a high level of performance, leading to the production of innovative products and rewarding society demands. In order to have a proper strategy and plan for economic and social development, we should evaluate the performance of the universities. In this research, analytical and descriptive methods have been used. In order to determine the status of universities, the existing records are reviewed through search of valid internet sites and the study of the latest articles and related documents. Then, according to the 2018 and 2019 ranking of the Times, descriptive statistics for comparing the world's top universities in Iran have used. According to the 2018 ranking of the Times, 18 universities and 29 university of Iran According to the 2019 ranking of the Times were among top world universities. Babol Noshirvani University of Technology has ranked first in national. In terms of teaching (education), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, in terms of research, University of Amirkabir and Sharif University of Technology Iran, in terms of the citation, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, in terms of industrial income, Sharif University, and in terms of international outlook of Ferdowsi Universities of Mashhad and Tehran University were ranked first in the national. In terms of the ratio of of students - professor, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, in terms of the percentage of international students, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, were located in the first place. Purposeful and structured assessment of the performance of universities is one of the components necessary for the survival of universities and the educational system of the country. Therefore, ranking is essential to determine the path, identify the strengths and weaknesses, as well as the competitive advantage between the universities of the country and the world.

To improve efficiency, equitable distribution of resources , the use of regional potentialities, decentralization and preventing accumulation of opportunities, as well as purposeful development of the health higher education in different parts of the country, and learning from the developed countries’ experiences, the draft of Planning Health Higher Education According to Territorial Provisions (spatial Planning ), drawn up based on the studies conducted by the Ministry of Health, was submitted to the Supreme Council of the Cultural. Then it was decided that all the departments and units of the Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences in each Macro-District should cooperate with the relevant secretariats from 1395. it is expected that it will bring positive and effectiveness and performance results. Reviewing various articles and texts by searching websites, prestigious journals, and reports about the current status of the Islamic Azad University Medical Sciences according to the forms self-declared by university. The largest hospitals under construction and property; and number of fields in medical sciences; the highest number of the existing student; and number of faculty members and number published articles in the macro-district 10; the highest number of cities with educational facilities in the macro-district 1; the lowest numbers of fields of study in the medical sciences, existing students and proposed students admission capacities; the lowest number of faculty members working on individual contractions or those officially or contractually employed in the macro-district 3. developing proper infrastructure for carrying out coordinated plans of the progress and innovation packages in medical education, the need for planning and operating out PHHEATP as a means of local development; regional development; promoting justice; reorganizing and updating plans and procedures, while applying methods، seems inevitable.