Present at the launch were: IRIMC President, Dr. Zali; WMA President-Elect, Professor Sir. Marmot; WHO Representative in Iran; Chairperson of Iranian Academy of Medical Sciences, Dr. Marandi; Senior Advisor of Iranian Minister of Health, Dr. Niknam, elected members of the Supreme Council of Iranian Medical Council and Director of International Affairs of Iranian Medical Council, Dr. Naghavi.

Internationally acclaimed, Professor Marmot is President-Elect of the World Medical Association, a Vice President of the Academia Europaea, a Foreign Associate Member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the Chair of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health set up by the World Health Organization in 2005, Director of UCL Institute of Health Equity, and MRC Research Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College, London.

Undoubtedly there's no more famous name in epidemiology – the study of public health – and the understanding of social inequalities in health and wellbeing, than Professor Marmot. His ground-breaking Whitehall Studies in the 1980s found a direct correlation between social status and life expectancy in civil servants. And in recent years he has chaired the UK's review of health inequalities in England, known as the Marmot Review. The link between GDP (Gross Domestic Product), health and wellbeing is something that Professor Sir. Marmot knows a lot about. The Marmot Review, commissioned under then Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2008 but reported to the coalition government in 2010, found that people living in the poorest neighborhoods will on average die seven years earlier than those in the richest neighborhoods. Against some expectations, the recommendations of the ensuing report, Fair Society, Healthy Lives, were largely adopted.

Professor Michael Marmot has led a research group on health inequalities for the past 30 years. In 2000 he was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen for services to Epidemiology and understanding health inequalities.

The former President of British Medical Association and the honorary fellow of the British Academy won the Balzan Prize for Epidemiology in 2004, gave the Harveian Oration in 2006 and won the William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research in 2008.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Zali extended his heartfelt wishes for the Iranian New Year and warmly welcomed Sir. Marmot and said:" please accept my warmest congratulations because you have been elected as WMA President-Elect. That means your remarkable achievements regarding social determinants of health and increasing health equity will be recognized at the highest level. I hope the health equity will be promoted worldwide during your presidency."

IRIMC President mentioned that Iranian Medical Council is the nation's largest independent and Non-Governmental Organization in the field of medicine which regulates almost all Iranian healthcare professionals and advocacy for health care professionals' and patients' right is one of its main objectives.

He said:" Having served as the Chancellor of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Board of Directors of some medical organizations, the Board of Trustees of two Iranian Medical Universities and Vice-President of IRI Medical Council; I have been always aware of the professional and guild rights of Iranian health care professionals and concerned of promoting the quality of national health care as well as promoting health equity in my country."

IRIMC President described about the Public and Private sectors in National Health System and said:" The establishment of Health Houses that was pioneered by Iran and recognized by WHO as the incredible masterpiece which brought low-cost healthcare to every district of Iran can be described as efforts regarding enabling all people to lead healthy lives. The Health Houses refer patients to rural Health Centers which are under the direct supervision of the universities of medical sciences.

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.

Apart from public health services, national private health sector has got a key role in our health system as well. Health care professionals in our private sector are fulfilled with latest trends in the field of medicine that make it possible to provide each patient the highest quality care which is affordable for many of Iranian through social security and health insurances."

Dr. Zali emphasized on the importance of global partnership for health and said:" When I took office on May 2013 with the vote of Iranian health care professionals, the idea of global partnership for health as well as promoting health equity enshrined in my objectives and schemes for the 9th term of IRIMC presidency.

It can be described as active International collaboration with certified medical, dental and pharmaceutical associations as well as councils which includes interchange of academic & scientific information between Iranian health care professionals and their counterparts around the globe.

The outcome flourishes the national academic ambience and will lead to improved and sustainable health care. Through the consistent and earnest efforts of my colleagues in IRIMC Department of International Affairs, we reached good ties with health related organizations through active links with European Embassies in Tehran."

The President of Iranian Medical Council added:" Due to improvement our national health system which has been always my concern, I promoted the setting of national health guidelines through active cooperation between Medical Council and medical, dental and pharmaceutical associations."

At the end of his speech, Dr. Zali congratulated again Sir. Marmot's new position and said:" Undoubtedly a new era will be started during your presidency as your doctrine will be enshrined in the objectives of WMA.

Iranian Medical Council strives to extend vastly its relations with World Medical Association as well as other certified medical, dental and pharmaceutical associations and I hope the cooperation between Iranian Medical Council and WMA will be put in a new level during your presidency.

Thank you for your time and attention."

Professor Sir. Marmot was very pleased to meet with IRIMC president and highly appreciated warm welcome of IRIMC official bodies and gave an impassioned and inspired speech:" I want to spend few moments for giving you a little bit background of the way I have come to be here and to be the President-Elect of the World Medical Association. I started adult life as a doctor and during training in internal medicine asked the reasonable question which dramatically changed my career. The question was:" Should we do for our patients something other than just patch them up, send them away from hospital and wait for them to come back again?", so I changed direction and went into research, in epidemiology and public health.

At that time, World Health Organization was mainly a disease-control organization. But my research was very much about how the circumstances in which people live and work have impact on the health. The then Director-General of WHO, Dr. JW Lee set up the Commission on Social Determinants of Health with me as the Chair." He added:" In that Commission we formulated that the conditions of which people are born, grow, live, work and age are vital to health and health equity. We also described that inequalities in power, money and resources give rise to those inequalities in the condition of daily life."

Sir. Marmot paid tribute to WHO Commissioner, Giovanni Berlinguer who died couple of weeks ago at the age of 90 and quoted his famous phrase regarding social determinants of health which has been enshrined in the report of WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH):"Toxic combination of unfair economic arrangements, poor governments and bad social programs give rise to the health inequities."

WMA President-Elect added:" When the final report of CSDH released, I was commissioned by the British government to apply the recommendations of CSDH to our country which is known as Marmot review. Because as the Chair of CSDH of WHO, we made a virtue of necessity and recommended that countries should take our report and work out how to apply our recommendations in the specific context."

The former president of British Medical Association said:"As the BMA President, I produced another report based on Marmot review, Fair Society, Healthy Lives, in which I defined the action plan for doctors due to achieve health equity." He added:" We were the idea that doctors and medical associations have a key role to play regarding social determinants of health, and doctors expressed their willingness regarding this issue and asked us to define them what they can do about that." He added:"We said they are five domains in which medical associations and doctors can act on social determinants of health;1)Education and training,2)Seeing patients in a broader perspective,3)Seeing the health system as an employer,4)Cross-sector working, and 5)Advocacy which is the most important one. As Rudolf Virchow, the great 19 century German Pathologist said physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor; we should be advocates for the improvement of those conditions that affect the health of the patients and population we serve. Advocacy is the moral that Dr. Zali and me believe in it.

Professor Marmot explained about his speech in WMA Council after being nominated by BMA to WMA Council to be the next president of World Medical Association. The points he had defined there was embraced by WMA leaders. He had said:"Remember why you went into medicine? I'm willing to bet that you all went into medicine because you had ideals; you wanted to help people and to cure diseases. We just need to extend those ideals to improve the conditions that make people sick."

The Director of UCL Institute of Health Equity said:"What I said to Dr. Alwan, the Regional Director of WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office was that it would be very good if we make 2 or 3 countries as leaders in the region regarding social determinants of health to make tangible practical activities, and I said Iran can be one of those leaders."

Dr. Zali and Sir. Marmot agreed to boost cooperation between Medical Council of the Islamic republic of Iran and BMA as well as WMA through holding regional workshops. IRIMC President and WMA President-Elect agreed to put forward the membership of Iranian Medical Council in WMA.

Dr. Shokouhi, the elected member of IRIMC Supreme Council congratulated Sir. Marmot and described the important role of Iranian physiotherapists to help patients suffering from disabilities.

The meeting was inaugurated by Dr. Naghavi, IRIMC Director of International Affairs who welcomed distinguished guests and briefly introduced IRIMC president and Professor Sir. Marmot to attendees.

Dr. Shima Naghavi, Director of International Affairs