Identifying and Ranking the Factors Affecting Medical Device Manufacturing Policy-making in Iran

Medical device manufacturing, both plays a key role in providing requirements of health care system and has economic and technological potential of development. This strategic industry can be an effective driver for industrial development and supporting health system of Iran. Efforts for development of domestic production of medical devices, assuming the especial characters of the industry, require more understanding of the factors affecting supporting policies. Here the main question is that, what are the factors and their importances, affecting medical device manufacturing policy-making? Then this research with the aim of identifying and ranking the factors affecting medical device manufacturing policies in Iran was done. This is a mixed research, which is made by a 2-round Delphi method. Also, as an innovation of this research, the specific matrixes of the relations between factors and knowledge of experts were determined. Then, by calculating the fuzzy weighted means of each factor, ranking the factors affecting medical device manufacturing policies as the main result of this paper was presented in two categories: 32 internal and 41 external factors. Finally, the research results are proposed to be used as a base in public policy making and road mapping of medical device industry (MDI) and developing strategies for producers of medical devices in Iran.