Established and introduced during 1980-1988 war with Iraq, Iranian Health Houses have been at the center of a so-called master plan to bring healthcare to every district. It emphasized community participation and intersectional cooperation to serve the needs of the thinly distributed and rapidly swelling population.

Locally sourced health workers are trained to meet the basic healthcare needs of rural areas inhabitants. A female community health worker is mainly responsible for child and maternal health while the male one is in charge of sanitation and environmental projects. Community health workers have an impressive knowledge of their patients' medical histories and logbooks of each household are kept at the health House. Each Health House serves 1500 people in its village and surrounding settlements.

The Health Houses refer patients to rural Health Centers which cover up to 10,000 people and staffed by a dentist, 2 or more physicians and several health technicians including midwives.

These centers are responsible for elective and emergency case management, supporting the Health Houses, supervising health technicians and community health workers, and giving regular reports to Iranian Ministry of Health.

The universities of medical sciences, of which one exists in each province, play a key role in medical education and in the provision of health services. The Chancellor of the university as executive director of the provincial health services is also in charge of all district health centers and hospitals.

Earlier this month, 1000 health Houses opened simultaneously nationwide while the official inaugural ceremony was held in Mazandaran Province.

In the inauguration ceremony held in Zarandin Village in Mazandaran Province, Iranian Minster of Health and official bodies of national health system attended.

Dr. Hashemi, the Health Minister, hailed the health progress made in past three decades and announced 1000 extra Health Houses will be opened within next 6 months.

"Our motto is "Prevention is better than cure" and we aim to extend primary care to all rural & urban areas." Health Minister said.

He added:" Dietary supplements are going to be distributed to vulnerable groups including pregnant women, children as well as students and towns and small cities will be covered by Health Care Network in near future."

Dr. Shima Naghavi, Director of International Affairs