Improvement in health indicators in Iran from 2004 to 2008

Islamic Republic of Iran has the strategic socioeconomic plans since 20 years ago in 5 year terms. It is important to know the concordance of performance in the health sector with this strategic plan. To evaluate the performance of the program implemented on the basis of a 5-year socioeconomic strategic plan, healthcare indicators in the Islamic Republic of Iran at the end the 4th year of the program (2008) were evaluated and compared with the same indicators from the 1st year (2004).Indicators were selected using the Delphi technique from published indicators. Data were gathered from the current health information system. Trends for calculated indicators at 2 time points were evaluated at both 41 individual universities and on average at the country level. An increasing trend of significant indicators in all medical universities was observed; however, healthcare indicators in the less-developed provinces need to be improved at an accelerated pace.