Goals of The Health System: Promoting Life Expectancy

Concomitant to world heart day (Sep 29^th), a seminar was held with the presence of doctors working in the suburbs, family doctors and health care assistants of comprehensive health centers in Mashhad city.

According to WebDa, Dr. Seyyed Kazem Farahmand, the deputy of Health and Hygiene Administration of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, asserted that the purpose of health officials in this seminar is promoting life expectancy.

As to the rise in life hope between 1978 and 1995, Dr. Farahmand gave credit to the positive effects of stabilizing the country’s integrated health network and health maintenance organization and stated: with the settlement of Integrated Health Network (IHN) in health system, we have witnessed the qualitative and quantitative elevation of all health indices in the society.

Dr. Farahmand referred to the fact that in the past, the outbreak of contagious diseases was the most important challenge of the country’s health system, and said: at the moment, with the changes in people’s life style, migration and moving from villages to the cities, rushing towards city dwelling and with the decrease in physical activities, there has been a change in the outbreaks from contagious diseases to non-contagious ones; such that 76% of ailments in the country refer to non-contagious ones which impose a heavy burden to the country’s health system.

Dr. Farahmand considered controlling non-contagious diseases as one of the fundamental goals of Health System Revolutionizing Program and emphasized: accordingly, the national document of decrease in non-contagious diseases is compiled with the coordination of other organizations in the country, targeting 25% decrease in non-contagious diseases till 2025.

The deputy of Health and Hygiene Administration of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences referred to the statistics of 38 million death records in the world as to non-contagious ailments. Three third of these cases have occurred in developing countries.

He pointed out that by controlling dangerous factors including: inadequate physical activities, improper diet and eating habits, tobacco and alcohol consumption, infliction with non-contagious diseases, especially chronic respiratory diseases, cancers and cardiovascular diseases can be prevented to a great extent.

Dr. Farahmand emphasized the role of education and raising the society’s awareness by applying proper technologies, especially in preventing non-contagious diseases.

Dr. Mohsen Mouhebati, Dr. Mohammad-Khajeh Delouei, Dr. Mohammadali Sardar and Dr. Mohsen Nemati, university professors and faculty members of the university, elaborated more on the role of high blood pressure treatment in decreasing cardiovascular diseases, prevalent epidemic cardiovascular diseases, the role of sports in cardiovascular patients and the role of diet and eating habits in cardiovascular diseases.