Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

The purpose of this research is to investigate association between social influence, productivity, and performance among researchers of medical ethics field.  This research was done using common methods in scientometric studies with the method of co-author and network analysis. The statistical population of the study consists of all articles published in journals in the field of medical ethics, which were indexed in the database of web of science in the period of 1978-2017. A total of 14,231 articles and 20,845 researchers were surveyed. Data analysis was done using UciNet and SPSS softwares. Research findings based on the social influence that calculated for each researcher. The study of relationship between social influence and performance showed that there is positive correlation between performance and degree centrality. However, there is a negative correlation between performance and closeness and betweenness centrality. Also, the relation between social influence and productivity showed that there is a positive and significant correlation between social influence and productivity indices. The results showed that the researcher who have a good status in terms of performance, have a high social impact. In addition, researchers who have a high degree centrality are in a favorable position in terms of productivity and performance.

The physicians of the Bukhtishu dynasty first entered the Abbasi court with the aim of practicing medicine; but soon after, thanks to their medical knowledge and skills, they gained a lot of power and wealth and became involved in power relations at court. Although they were able to gain a high position in the Abbasid court; but their position was constantly unstable, and sometimes they were at the peak of power and sometimes at the bottom of humiliation. Therefore, the present study, with a historical method and a descriptive-analytical approach, seeks to answer the question: what factors have been effective on the relationship between the physicians of the Bukhtishu dynasty and the Abbasid Caliphate? The claim of the research is that the need of the caliphs for treatment provided the background for the entry of the doctors of Bukhtishu dynasty to the caliphate system and strengthened their presence in the court. Factors such as the success of these physicians in medicine, the power of the caliphs in supporting them; other threats from courtiers also fluctuated the status of these physicians. The findings of the study indicate that physicians with the benefit of medical knowledge had such an effect on the caliphs that they were considered as one of the main actors in politics, so they play an important role in the removal and installation of caliphs, poisoning and killing of them. They could pave the way for their conditioned person to come to power by abandoning their treatment; they were also degraded, imprisoned, and sometimes exiled or even killed. 

The issue of disease in the context of history has always been one of the concerns of the wise man. In accordance with the intellectual system of each period of history, various diseases have been identified and prevention and treatment strategies have been presented. The identification of some diseases, including the flu, goes back to a new era. The use of the word "flu" first occurred in the Qajar era. Because it is new and unknown, the group of physicians, as the person in charge of health matters, needed to know about this disease and define and explain it. The purpose of this study as a historical-review study, in the first step is to study the history of the prevalence of this disease in Iran and the process of recognizing it through the available information sources in the Qajar era society. The medical approach of the press (publications) and the identification and introduction of " RESALE DAR MARAZ_E ANFLUENZA: GRIP" as the first treatise written about this disease, has been done at this stage. The second step of the present study is to investigate how the Spanish flu entered Iran and assesses its consequences in the affected areas.

Spanish flu was one of the harshest historical pandemics in the northeastern Iran, which killed many local people. Its first outbreak in Mashhad dates back to August 3 and 4, 1918. This disease continued until 1920 in successive waves. The death toll of this disease in Mashhad (with a population of 100,000 people at the time) was possibly as high as 3,500. Moreover, this disease caused outbreak of other diseases. In fact, it killed five percent of this city’s population and resulted in huge deaths in this city. This paper takes the importance of Mashhad’s medical history into consideration and at the same time investigates the outstanding role of Spanish influenza, World War I, and the presence of Russians who were the main cause of this outbreak in Mashhad, and the reaction of Iranian and foreign physicians to this disease and the medicine they prescribed, as well as the significant role of British in fake Persian Famine, opium addiction, and food poverty.