TEHRAN –Health Minister Bahram Einollahi and his Qatari counterpart Hanan Mohammad Al-Kuwari, in a meeting in Doha on Thursday, highlighted the importance of strengthening cooperation in the field of health.

During the meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the international conference on quality and safety in healthcare in Doha, Al-Kuwari announced Qatar’s readiness to expand cooperation with Iran in the field of health.

“Exchanging medical science professors will lead to the improvement of public health and medical knowledge,” the Health Ministry's website quoted Al-Kuwari as saying.

She went on to highlight facilitating health tourism as one of the other areas of strengthening the relations between the two countries.

Einollahi, for his part, underscored the need for regional cooperation to address health concerns. “We can help to protect many countries in the region from infectious diseases."

He announced the country’s willingness to collaborate with Qatar in scientific and educational fields while stressing that interactions between scientists of the two countries should be broadened in research, operations, and fieldwork.

The cooperation can be intensified through promoting health tourism, exchanging professors and students, and combating diseases.

Middle East Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare

A delegation headed by Einollahi attended the Middle East Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare 2024, which was held in Doha, Qatar, from February 21 to 25.

In addition to holding a meeting with Al-Kuwari, the minister was also scheduled to deliver a speech at the forum.

Since 2013 the Middle East Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare has helped equip and inform healthcare professionals to excel, improve, and be catalysts for change.

The 2024 Forum program covered engaging topics across five tracks including Quality and Safety, Population Health, Leadership and Innovation in Healthcare, Applied Improvement, and Person-Centered Care.

This comprehensive learning activity inspired healthcare professionals to meet, learn, and share knowledge with the collective aim of improving the quality and safety of care for patients and communities.

This year’s Forum connected both in-person and online, more than 2,500 physicians, nurses, quality leaders, healthcare administrators, hospital executives, patient and family advisors, and other allied health professionals.

Intl. congress on family health

Iran will host an international congress on family health from March 5 to 6 with a focus on the significant role of mothers in the family's wellbeing.

In this regard, health programs to promote mothers’ health are planned to increase in the next Iranian calendar year, starting on March 21, ISNA quoted Hossein Farshidi, an official with the Health Ministry, as saying.

The international congress on family health will be held as part of the Health Ministry’s efforts to highlight the role of women in promoting family health and sharing other countries' experiences in promoting family health, the official added.

Experts from the World Health Organization and some of the health ministers of regional countries are expected to participate in the event, Farshidi noted.

28th technical meeting of G5

The 28th Technical Meeting of the G5 Forum was held in Tehran from February 13 to 15 with the theme of “Women and Family Health”.

G5 member states including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbekistan (as an observer member), and the World Health Organization attended the meeting.

The participants examined joint strategies to improve the health of women and mothers. Also, indicators, achievements, challenges, and threats to women's health in physical, mental, and spiritual categories, and the future approaches were discussed, the Health Ministry website reported.

Addressing the meeting, Health Minister Bahram Einollahi said the main objective is improving regional countries' health. Mother's health is the pillar of a family’s health, which leads to the expansion of health in a country. So, mothers have a central role in the family.

“Making up half of the country's population, mothers can play an essential role in the nutritional and mental health of families by maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Women’s physical, mental, cultural, emotional, and spiritual well-being improves health care. Healthy women make a healthy family and subsequently a healthy society.”

Einollahi added that the family physician program focusing on family health is being implemented in the country.

On February 21, Einollahi announced that the Family Physician Program is an initiative of Iran, and its intellectual property will be registered in the name of the Islamic Republic in international forums. The administration intends to transform the health system approach from treatment-oriented to prevention-oriented.

MT/MG