JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON HISTORY OF MEDICINE
Year:2021 | Volume:10 | Issue:2|Papers Count:8

In 2013, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran approved the major medical history to be offered by medical universities of Iran at master and doctorate levels. Accepting students for admission for MSc program has continued up to present and eight medical universities began running master’ s courses in history of medicine. However, concerning the Ph. D. program, it was only Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences that ran the program in 2013. The university admitted three students, of whom one failed to continue his study and the two others have not yet graduated. Then, the Ministry of Health did not allow medical universities to admit students at doctorate level any more. This brought about a major obstacle in developing this important branch of science....

The studies conducted so far on the history of the clinical algorithm have not noticed to the works of Ahmad Al Hayati Ibn Muhammad al-Qurashi (917 AH-1511 AD), who, to the best of our knowledge, was the first person who applied multiple branching algorithms (arborization) to medical books, and his book named Shajarat al-Tibb (lit. a tree of medicine) followed the dendritic method (multiple branching algorithms (arborization) in presenting medical information. The book includes brief, yet useful, information, coordinated in a wonderful arrangement of the medical science rules, such as naturals, manuals, symptoms, and treatment arts. Moreover, the book, written at the time of Sultan Beyazid II, was mentioned in the Index of Medical Manuscripts in Turkey. It can be concluded that Ḥ ayati, Aḥ mad ibn Muḥ ammad was the fi rst medical professor to adopt the use of clinical algorithms. If the translation of his books was available, his research and expertise would be known to more researchers as well.

Dr. Mehdi Assmar is a prominent researcher in Iran, with a specialization in parasitology and medical entomology, who has done a large amount of research related to the public health in Pasteur Institute of Iran and other institutions or universities for four decades. Most of his research has been on plague, recurrent fever, malaria, toxoplasmosis and leishmaniasis. Discovering the cause of resistance to plague infection among the rodents of the Kurdistan region is one of his important achievements. During his research, he found the extent of plague in the studied areas, the frequency of wild rodents and their external and internal parasites, the susceptibility of different strains of plague strains to antibiotics, and the effectiveness of systemic toxins in controlling the rodent fleas. This paper provides an overview of his scientific activities.

The present study aims at finding the origins of health and medical regulations in ancient Iran by reviewing some current regulations regarding these topics. The central question of this study is whether there is a significant difference between the current health law and medical regulations with pre-Islamic health and medical rules? Since the medical profession deals with the individuals’ body, mind, and spirit, and as healthcare is among the primary principles of Zoroastrianism, several practices of medical doctors of ancient Iran have been mentioned in Avesta and other Zoroastrian texts. Zoroaster emphasized the purity and sanity and exerted significant efforts to ratify rules and regulations in the medical field for the good of the patient. Vendidad contains different topics concerning the health issues; the Avestan text deals with the principles of medicine, medical system, patients’ rights, physicians’ competency, the relation between crime and illness, abortion, and medical ethics as well as the punishments for medical errors. Another ancient book, “ Denkard” – belonging to the same era – has also addressed the critical issues found in health laws. This article will review health and medical-related regulations regarding some challenging topics (such as the importance of health legislation, physicians’ duties, abortion and euthanasia) in the pre-Islamic period, using an interdisciplinary and descriptive-analytical methods, and compare them with those in the contemporary era. This study shows that some standards and challenges have remained untouched from the pre-Islamic to the contemporary era.

Salasul baul is a disturbing health condition as the affected person is not capable to hold the urine. It causes considerable morbidity, social seclusion, and psychological stress, leading to poor quality of life (QoL). It, thus, must be given a significant attention not only from the hygiene perspective but also for its impact on their quality of life. Higher incidence is found in females of advancing age. Debilitating health related quality of life is an important reason and factor for seeking treatment. Most of those suffering from Salasul baul do not share their problem with the healthcare provider, thus increasing the disease burden. Therefore, in order to prevent urinary incontinence, its risk factors should be known in the first place. In the present paper, various scientific papers from reputed journals have been reviewed and also Unani literature has been incorporated to offer an integrated outlook of this dysfunction. Many eminent Unani scholars have described this condition with the name of salasul baul in their classical treatises. Emphasis for the correction of this condition has been given to diet, herbal formulations and riyazat (exercise). Patients’ education and adherence to a specific exercise regime is vital in preventing urinary incontinence.

Simultaneous with the establishment of the Safavid dynasty, due to the developments in the global and regional relations, the ground was prepared for the expansion of Iran and Europe relations. The main reasons for this were the propagation of Christianity, the presence of the Ottoman government as a common enemy of Iran and Europe, as well as commercial interests. These relations reached their peak during the reign of Shah Abbas I., encouraging various groups of Europeans, such as religious missionaries, businessmen, ambassadors, political delegations, tourists, etc. to come to Iran. Physicians were seen in all the mentioned groups, especially in religious missionaries. So, owing to their presence, medical knowledge of European was introduced to Iranians. The first acquaintance with medical profession of European was obtained at the same time as the presence of the Portuguese in the Persian Gulf. Syphilis, which was first entered Iran from Europe in the late ninth century and was called smallpox, led European medicine to entering Iran. The researchers of the present study, based on the reports related to the presence and activity of European physicians in Iran, travelogues and historical and research books, have used a descriptive-analytical method to examine the medical status and European physicians in Safavid Iran.

Dear Editor In Journal of “ Research on History of Medicine” , issue 1, vol. 2, 2013 (pp. 25-32), an article, entitled “ Consideration of Quarantine Conditions in Bushehr Between 1905 and 1915, Based on Baliuz of Britain Reports” (Nadim, 2013, pp. 25-32), was published. The article, written by the esteemed author Mr. Mostafa Nadim, seems to suffer some shortcomings. Therefore, the purpose of writing this letter is to discuss those points and prevent the print of distorted information in a scientific research journal. Accordingly, the following points are considered important to be mentioned in this letter:...

Dear Editor, It is our honor to inform you that two new interest groups have joined the Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN) family since March 2021. The first group is “ History of Medicine Network (HiMedNet)” established by Dr. Arman Zargaran, as the founder, Hamed Ahansazan, as the managing director, and Dr. Mehrdad Karimi, as the supervisor. HiMedNet has been made to increase studies and research in the field of history of medicine and also to create a scientific and educational research group in order to target the teaching of research methods, publication and development of studies and research in this field of knowledge. You can have access to this group through the following link: https: //usern. tums. ac. ir/Group/ Info/HiMedNet...