Authors : Soudabeh Vatankhah, S. Jamaladin Tabibi, Sogand Tourani and Mohammad Amin Bahrami
Abstract: Iran’s contribution to global scientific output was 29% in 2003 but the country has appointed in vision document (Iran 1404) to obtain first position of science, research and technology in her area in 2025. Therefore, Iran must assess her capacity of conducting high quality research and strength it regularly. Developing right indicators for health research performance assessment was the main purpose of this study. It had a complementary purpose of identifying the main problems of health research in Iran. This study was conducted in 3 phases including environmental scan, consultation and interviewing and consensus-building. First 2 phases leaded to a draft of potential indicators. We used modified Delphi technique for consensus-building in phase 3. After 3 rounds, 18 indicators obtained consensus, some of them have comparison base and some another relate to country’s priorities. Also, we identified 8 main problems of Iranian health research system based on the viewpoints of the health professionals. The selected 18 indicators provide a useful instrument for assessing country’s health research capacity. Also, decision makers can formulate suitable policies for health research with addressing main problems identified in this study.
Soudabeh Vatankhah, S. Jamaladin Tabibi, Sogand Tourani and Mohammad Amin Bahrami, 2009. Development of Iranian Health R and D Performance Assessment Indicators. Research Journal of Biological Sciences, 4: 1202-1207.