Considering the invitation letter sent to Chancellor of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Dr. Jafarian, a meeting was held in WHO office in Tehran on 25 June 2014, with presence of the representative of WHO in Iran, Dr. Jihane Tawilah, TUMS Director of International Relations, Accreditation and Ranking, Dr. Nekoofar, TUMS Senior Officer of International Relations, Ali Sayyadi, and WHO National Professional Officer, Shadrokh Sirous.
Pointing to the conference of Medical Education in the region, which is going to be held in October 2014, Dr. Jihane Tawilah stated that at present, some TUMS research centers including Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Gastro Intestinal and Liver Diseases Research Center have collaboration with WHO. The representative also asserted that WHO has specified a number of priorities for the region such as nutrition, good dietary habits, physical activities, risk factors and behavioral sciences, the list of which will be sent to TUMS as soon as possible. Universities are required to boost public health rather than focusing on medical education, she added and expressed hopes that collaboration increases, particularly strategic collaboration. Dr. Tawilah further emphasized on some projects to be run by TUMS in the future consisting of short term courses for midlevel managers not only for medical students, and one month exposure in clinical level for the applicants in the region, adding that WHO can contribute to implementation of the projects through advertising TUMS logo and website link.
Moreover, Dr. Nekoofar spoke of TUMS potentials briefly and welcomed cooperation with WHO, saying that in addition to School of Public Health and the research centers cooperating with WHO currently, TUMS will negotiate the possibility of expanding cooperation with its other schools as well. TUMS Office of Vice Chancellor for Global Strategies and International Affairs will pursue the said collaborations, he said and added that the university is ready to receive international students and have joint cooperation with universities in the region. Dr. Nekoofar also invited WHO representative to attend one of the monthly meetings held regularly by international vice deans of TUMS schools, in order to present WHO activities in Iran. “TUMS seeks systematic relations not individual relations”, he concluded.
Reported By: M. Maddah