Iran’s policies aimed at supporting medical equipment development during the COVID-19

In recent years, the occurrence of unexpected events such as climate change, environmental destruction, and health pandemics, in addition to creating social, economic, and political disturbances, highlights the strengthening of the infrastructure to deal with such crises. As one of the recent global pandemics, COVID-19 revealed the weaknesses of health systems, especially in providing medical equipment for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. In response to this challenge, many countries including Iran, tried to enhance their capabilities in medical equipment by adopting policies proportionate to the conditions of the COVID-19 period. Given the abovementioned, this paper intends to review and analyze policies aimed at supporting the development of medical equipment during COVID-19 in Iran. We first reviewed the literature and international experiences to propose a preliminary conceptual policy framework for supporting medical equipment, which seven experts confirmed as suitable for the specificities of the Iranian context. By conducting 13 semi-structured interviews, we collected primary data and analyzed them by content analysis. Our findings elaborate on three categories, including 1) financial and tax policies; 2) accelerating the process related to regulations, trials, and approvals; and 3) business, production, and networking incentives that influenced the development of medical equipment during COVID-19. Adopted policies in Iran led to the rapid development and production of advanced equipment, such as ventilators and pulse oximeters, by accelerating the existing processes and providing new supports that would not have been offered under normal circumstances. Our findings entail policy implications on supporting the development of medical equipment in the post-COVID-19 era.