The 24th meeting of the international council of universities of medical sciences in the 8th Major Region was held in Zahedan, June 2024
The 24th meeting of the international managers of universities of medical sciences in the 8th region was held on June 12, 2024 in Zahedan, Iran. The 8th Major Regions the Iran’s health system include Kerman, Zahedan, Rafsanjan, Jiroft, Zabol, Bam, Sirjan and Iranshahr universities of medical sciences. The meeting was attended by the directors of the international affairs of the members universities.
Report from: Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, International Affairs Office
Published on: 14 June 2024
The 24th meeting of the international managers of universities of medical sciences in the 8th region was held on June 12, 2024 in Zahedan, Iran. The 8th Major Regions the Iran’s health system include Kerman, Zahedan, Rafsanjan, Jiroft, Zabol, Bam, Sirjan and Iranshahr universities of medical sciences. The meeting was attended by the directors of the international affairs of the members universities.
Dr. Niknam, Special Assistant to Iran's Minister of Health and Director General of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Health addressed this meeting via videoconference. Referring to the vast experiences and capacities of Islamic Republic of Iran and the significant progress that has been made in providing quality health and treatment services and medical educations in Iran, Dr. Niknam said: “The two main principles for such a great achievement are establishing a unique PHC network for universal access to health care and integration of medical education in health care services by establishing medical universities across the country”.
Dr. Niknam mentioned the collective work that has been carried out between the Group 5 countries, an Iran’s Ministry of Health initiative to promote the good cooperation among these countries in various aspects of the health system. He emphasized that: “Joint collaboration between neighboring countries to address joint public health problems is a necessity not an option”.
Dr. Seyed Mehdi Tabatabai, Advisor to Chancellor for International Affairs, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, introducing the internationalization perspective of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, stated: “Zahedan University of Medical Sciences has taken a comprehensive approach towards internationalization of the university and 6 specific objectives have been set in the university action plan, each of which has its own strategies that are being planned and implemented”.
He continued: “These specific objectives include: capacity building and strengthening of international infrastructure, development of internationalization of medical education, development of internationalization of research, development of health tourism program, development of health diplomacy and international development of food and medicine. The development of health diplomacy is one of the main steps in the internationalization of the university”.
In this meeting Dr. Tabatabaei gave a talk on “Health Diplomacy implications for Cross-border Cooperation in Healthcare” with a focus on health diplomacy during COVID-19 pandemic, the lessons learned from challenges and collective efforts to tackle the pandemic. He emphasized on the emerging infectious disease outbreaks in the region including dengue fever, malaria and measles that require prompt health diplomacy efforts.
Dr. Amirheidari, Director of International Affairs of Kerman University of Medical Sciences addressed the meeting by highlighting the different aspects of internationalization of medical universities. Dr. Amirheidari said: “The internationalization is very important subject and we can see that it has been mentioned in the Iran's 20-Year Vision. We should pay attention to establishing an institutional culture of internationalization in the 8th Region universities. The universities need to focus on activities other than international students’ admission to achieve the goals of internationalization of medical universities”.
In this meeting, the best practice reports of the member universities in the region in the field of university internationalization were presented by university directors of international affairs from Kerman, Bam, Zabol, and Zahedan.
In the conclusion of the meeting, while acknowledging the differences, the member university representaives agreed to take measures towards the internationalization of the medical universities by taking into account the competitive advantages and capacities of each university and not just merely focusing on admission and trainingof international students.
Copyright © 2024 Zahedan University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved. Date updated: 14/06/2024
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