The integration of the services will not only help to improve health indicators but also have a significant impact on the economy of the country’s healthcare system, the health ministry’s website quoted Nafiseh Hosseini-Yekta, the director of the health ministry’s Persian medicine office, as saying.

“Iran has the capacity to become one of the pioneers in providing traditional and complementary medicine services in the world. 

The integration of Persian medicine in the healthcare system can be a turning point in the global application of the knowledge,” the official noted.

Considering the general health policies of the country, including its emphasis on the promotion and development of Persian medicine, the festival is an important step towards the realization of these goals, she added.

Moreover, it opens up a valuable opportunity to introduce the unique capacities of Persian medicine while laying the ground for specialists, researchers, students, and those interested in Persian medicine to showcase their latest scientific and research achievements.

It also extends the chance for the expansion of knowledge-based markets and promotes interactions between educational, research, and treatment centers of Persian medicine at the national level in three sectors including science, culture, and art, focusing on education, research, treatment, technology, and Persian medicine veterans.

This year, in addition to the three main sections, a special section is dedicated to students of all grades. 

The 3rd Persian Medicine Festival was held in Tehran in January 2023 with the main goal of identifying and supporting top scientists and innovators in the health sector. 

The event aimed to create a platform for greater productivity from the research achievements, expansion of knowledge-based markets, and multilateral interaction between educational, research, and therapeutic centers.

“Persian medicine; the path of progress and scientific innovation” was the motto of the festival, in line with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s designation of the Iranian year 1401 (March 2022-March 2023) as “The Year of Production: Knowledge-Based and Job-Creating”.

Promoting Persian medicine in healthcare system

In July, the health ministry held a workshop on principles and basic concepts of Persian medicine in accordance with the objective of integrating Persian medicine into the country’s healthcare system.

The two-day event aimed to promote the experts’ knowledge in Persian medicine, particularly in healthy lifestyle, as well as raise their awareness of the rules, guidelines, and national policy documents, the health ministry’s website reported.

During the workshop, prominent professors in Persian medicine discussed various topics including temperament, four senses of humor: phlegm (Balgham), blood (Dam), yellow bile (Safra’), and black bile (Sauda’), lifestyle measures, widely-used medicinal plants, and drug interactions.

Currently, nine faculties of Persian medicine enroll students in the country’s universities, she added.

Training Persian medicine experts has always been at the top of the Persian medicine office’s agenda. Therefore, different skill courses have been developed and held under the supervision of the health ministry.

Around 500 Persian medicine experts are providing health and medical treatment services across the country.

More than 1,000 general practitioners who have passed the Persian medicine courses approved by the health ministry are also offering services, Mehr news agency quoted Nafiseh Hosseini-Yekta, the director of the health ministry’s Persian medicine office, as saying in June.