Journal of

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Background and Aim: Surveying faculty members can prove beneficial in the assessment of the university's performance in various domains, and the design and planning of suitable interventions. The current study assesses faculty members' opinions on the university's development programs.

Materials and Methods: One hundred and forty nine individuals completed the questionnaire in this cross-sectional study that was done through systematic sampling. The questionnaire covered demographic questions, professional specifications, faculty promotion criteria, sabbatical leaves, faculty participation in short-term educational programs, being in contact with graduates, recruiting foreign students, distant learning, processes involving research proposal approval, rewards and encouragement policies, faculty participation in health care management and distribution of budget among schools and hospitals.

Results: 71.8% of participants were male. The mean numbers of years of service in the university was 14.2 with a standard deviation of 7.5. Most participants were satisfied with the current status of promotion, processes involving research proposal approval and their participation in short-term educational programs. However most were not happy with the current status of sabbatical leaves.

Conclusion: Surveying through the methodical approach is a valuable tool in guiding senior university directors and its repetition and continuity can strengthen faculty participation and assess changing procedures.

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Background and Aim: Foodstuffs additives are a general term for materials that are added to the foodstuffs in order to increase durability and to improve the appearance, composition, taste and food nutritional value. Colors are classified in this group and are added to foodstuffs in order to increase their attraction. The aim of this survey was to analyze status of added colors to the juice of black cherry and juice of barberry which are produced in Tehran City, capital of Iran.

Materials and Methods: Three haundred thirty six samples of dried sweets were randomly collected and analyzed from different areas of Tehran. First, the samples were de-colored by Clorhidric Acid, and then were analyzed after refining by Thin Layer Chromatography (T.L.C) method.

Results: Eighty nine percent from the total samples contained colors. Among chromatic samples, 62 samples (18.5%) out the total samples, contained artificial, non-edible colors and 237 samples (70.5%) from the total samples contained artificial and edible colors (for Industrial Producers) and 37 samples (11%), contained natural colors. Carmoisine color was detected more than added colors in juice of black cherry and juice of barberry.

Conclusion: Low costs, stability, Ph and similarity of artificial dyes with natural dyes motivate the producers for high utilization of these dyes without considering their possible hazards and/or their edible quality aspects.

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Background & Aim: Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) is an extensive ontology of biomedical knowledge developed and maintained by U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). Traditional Iranian Medicine (TIM) does not have any position in the structure of metathesaurus of UMLS. The main aim of this study was designing a scheme of TIM cluster's crotch mapping in the structure of metathesaurus of UMLS. Moreover, the TIM position and its proportion in the domain of vocabulary and concepts of universal medical knowledge was another aim of this study.

Materials and Methods: System analysis was the method of this study. To investigate structure of UMLS metathesaurus, and to survey lacking of TIM cluster's crotch, we applied UMLS Knowledge Source (KS) by using inductive, deductive, inductive-deductive approaches. 

Results: One Concept Unique Identifier (CUI) two synonym terms with Lexical Unique Identifier (LUI), L0025131 and L6330122 two ancestor and parent concept nine concepts which with TIM crotch were the child concepts of two ancestor and parent eighteen sibling concepts six narrower and five other related found concepts were identified for the proposal TIM crotch mapping in metathesaurus of UMLS. In addition, we found the "Biomedical Occupation or Discipline" semantic type assigned to it.

Conclusions: Current domain of metathesaurus of UMLS does not represent complete and formal domain and position of TIM. Therefore, this metathesaurus needs to depict a domain and position for TIM.

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Background and Aim: Patents are used as indicators to assess the growth of science and technology in a given country or area. They are examined to determine the research potentials of research centers, universities, and inventors. This study aims to map the past and current trends in patenting activities with a view to understanding better and tracking the changing nature of science and technology in Iran.

Materials and Methods: The patenting activity in Iran was investigated based on USPTO, WIPO, and Esp@cenet for the period 1976-2011. The researchers analyzed the affiliation of inventors, and collected patents having at least one Iranian inventor. The collected data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel.

Results: results showed that between 1976 and 2011, 212 patents were registered by Iranian inventors in the above-mentioned three databases. The average number of Iranian patents registered per year increased significantly from 25 in 1976-1980 to 119 in 2006-2011. It should be noted that the highest number of registered patents (27%) were in" chemistry, metallurgy" area of International Patent Classification, followed by "human necessities"(18%), and "performing operations transporting"(15%).

Conclusion: Overall, the proportion of Iranian inventors' patents registered in databases is small. However, the figure shows a growth for the years under study. Iran's patents registered in databases have considerable subject concentration. Scientific areas are growing together, and there is more potential of research work and innovation in areas of "chemistry, metallurgy", "Electricity" and "human needs".

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Background and Aim: Pityriasis versicolor is a fungal disease with causative agent Malassezia species which is an opportunistic and lipophilic yeast .With regard to liphophilic nature of the yeast, this study was carried out for evaluation of relationship between pityriasis versicolor and triglyceride and cholesterol levels.

Materials and Methods: This cross - sectional study was performed on 1500 subjects ranging from 10 to 50 years old in Isfahan province. Of total subjects, 105 had pityriasis versicolor. Disease confirmation was based on direct examination, inoculation and culture on Dixon media. Measurement of total cholesterol and triglyceride of patients and control groups in fasting manner was done by Auto analyzer RA 1000. Data of patients including age, education level and job was gathered by questionnaire and analysis of results was done by t student, chi square and Pearson correlation tests.

Results: Prevalence of infection was 7% in the test group. Maximum frequent rates of infection was %3.13 in age group 20- 30 years and minimum in age group 30-40 years(% 0.87). The highest rate of total cholesterol levels was seen in age group 40-50 years (mean 215 mg/dL) and the lowest was in age group 10-20 years(mean 205 mg/dL).

Conclusion: Total cholesterol and triglyceride levels in patients were higher than the control group but the difference was not significant(P<0.05). No correlation was seen between pityriasis versicolor and increase in the total cholesterol and triglyceride levels in patients and control groups.

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Background and Aim: Accountability is a process by which all service organizations including hospitals are required to legitimize their activities. This research aims to study the seven aspects of accountability in Iran's teaching hospitals.

Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional analytic study performed in the second half of 1390 in five major medical-educational hospitals in 5 points of the country. A research-made questionnaire with seven dimensions (ethical, cultural, financial, operational, legal, informational, and structural) was used. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: The total number of subjects was 454, of whom 45.6% were males and the rest were females (n = 247). They were mostly (40.1%) in the age group of 21- to 29-year-olds, and the least figure (6.8%) pertained to those older than 50 years of age. The average mean of structure turned out to be the highest (3.54 ± 0.97) and the informational dimension had the lowest (3.45 ± 0.97). The average accountability score was the highest in Rasht hospital (99.3 ± 0.61) and the lowest in Tehran hospital (3.02 ± 0.67). The correlations between all dimensions were confirmed. Moreover, accountability as evaluated in the studied educational hospitals was above average.

Conclusion: Patients' attitude towards accountability in Iran's teaching hospitals was assessed to be above average. The findings show that an office or a unit for accountability, validation, and continuous audit of its dimensions is essential to advance the high goals of the hospitals.

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Background and Aim: Focus on organizational health could ensure the future success of any organization. Considering the fast changing conditions of hospitals and the necessity of effectiveness, employees are required who can show voluntary behavior towards the organization and customers. Therefore, this study mainly aims to survey the relationship between organizational health and organizational citizenship behavior in selected hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences(TUMS).

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive-analytic study was conducted in 2010. The population of the study comprised the entire staff of TUMS selected hospitals. In total, 312 employees were selected. The researchers gathered their data using questionnaires of organizational health and organizational citizenship behavior. For data analysis, both descriptive statistics(percentage, mean, standard deviation and variance) and inferential statistics(Pearson correlation and regression) were applied. The data were analyzed using SPSS18 software.

Results: The correlation between the organizational health and five dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior(Conscientiousness, Altruism, Helping Behavior, Civil Virtue, Sportsmanship, and Courtesy) was significant(p = 0/0001).

Conclusion: Given this significant correlation between organizational health and organizational citizenship behavior, organizations can make improvements in employees' behavior. This can be achieved by creating harmony among members and through continuous improvement and growth.

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Background and Aim: Equitable distribution of resources in health sector is one of the prerequisites of social justice in any society. The aim of this study is to determine inequality in the distribution of specialists and hospital beds in West Azerbaijan Province.

Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive study. The population of the study consists of all hospital beds in the public sector and all specialists working in the health sector of West Azerbaijan Province in 2012 . The required data were collected after referring to health and treatment d eputies of Urmia University of Medical Sciences and Statistical Center of Iran . To determine inequity in the distribution of specialists and hospital beds, per capita resource indicators, the Gini coefficient, and Lorenz curve were employed.

Results: Distribution of specialist physicians in the province was not equitable the situation was the same as regards hospital beds, too.

Conclusion: It seems that neither the distribution of specialist physicians nor the number of hospital beds is proportional to the population. Besides, measures such as p roviding special welfare facilities, paying higher wages, and considering the health needs of people in the province can better attract physicians and modify the existing shortcomings.

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Background and Aim: To perform plans and achieve their goals, organizations are in need of different factors. One of the most important of which is the existence of an ideal organizational climate and participation. The main goal of this study is to determine the relationship between organizational climate and faculty members' participation in decision makings at Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences (SSUMS) in Yazd. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study induced in 2011-2012. The research population comprised all 292 SSUMS faculty members. 72 members were selected through random-category sampling method. For data collection, two questionnaires included organizational climate and participation were used. The reliability of two questionnaires were 0.86 and 0.85, respectively, using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The validity of both questionnaires were confirmed by expert panel. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version 18. For descriptive results, and used Pearson test for Analytical results. Results: The average of total participation rate for faculty members was computed to be 3.43. The total figure for organizational climate with a mean of 82.6 was obtained from the total average of micro-scale scores. A Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.418 showed that there was a direct relationship between organizational climate and faculty members' participation. Conclusion: In spite of weakness of counselling system and team work system, and approach diversity between the faculty members, they are enthusiastic to cooperate to solve the university problems. Therefore we suggest more financial and spiritual mechanisms for autonomy of the faculty members.

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Background and Aim: Online submission and peer review systems are formal channels of communication among authors, journal editorial boards, and reviewers. The review process starts after authors submit their manuscripts. The aim of this study is to examine the online article submission and peer review systems in terms of the capability in medical journals of Iranian Ministry of Health, and Medical Education. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive survey study, 199 approved Iranian medical journals were examined so that the characteristics of online submission and peer review systems could be investigated. To study author role features, a checklist was developed by the researcher. The data were analyzed by SPSS 18 and Microsoft Excel 2007. Results: The online submission and peer review systems considered in this study had most (84%) of the features of the author role. Among the systems reviewed, Kowsar system had the highest number of features. Conclusion: The results show that the studied systems consider some, but not all, of the required features. To meet the maximum required features of the author role, it seems necessary to take all standard research criteria into account

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Background and Aim: The recently emerged symptoms of population aging have raised serious concerns in some developed countries. A recent report by the United Nations (UN) indicates that aging is more rapidly growing and is even more serious in developing countries than it is in certain other countries. Therefore, this study is aimed to determine the impression of aging on non-oil economic growth. Materials and Methods: A simple economic growth model was built which would take demographic variables into account. Then, using the country's data for the years 1967-2011, the researchers tried to estimate autoregressive distributed lags (ADL). The short- and long-term models, and error correction model were estimated using Microfit 4.0 software. Results: The findings show that physical capital, human capital and trade openness have a significant positive effect on per capita income, both in the long and in the short run. Similarly, the regression analysis indicates that “Ageing Index” may have a significant effect on economic growth in Iran’s non-oil sector. Conclusion: Due to the young makeup of Iran's population, the signs of aging economy have not raised sensitiveness but predictions indicate that the aging process in Iran will be intensified in the coming decades and its negative effects will emerge in near future. Therefore, due to the long-term effects of aging on economic growth, working structure and retiredness reform policies, it is vital to stabilize population growth at an optimal rate, and more importantly, pay attention to capital storage.

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Background and Aim: To improve the implementation of clinical governance (CG) in Iran's hospitals, awareness of various aspects of its implementation and assessment is important. The aim of this study was to find out the obstacles and challenges of clinical governance implementation and assessment in Qazvin teaching hospitals. Materials and Methods: Semi-structured interviews with 17 senior managers, clinical staff and clinical governance experts were conducted in six hospitals of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences (QUMS). To analyze the collected data, framework analysis was used. Results: The challenges and obstacles of CG implementation in Qazvin teaching hospitals were explained using three themes of (1) challenges of CG implementation, (2) improvement in seven dimensions of CG, and (3) challenges of CG implementation assessment. Conclusion: The results of this study show that CG implementation needs to address three issues: improving clinical staff awareness about CG, changing organizational culture so as to make it more receptive to CG, and creating higher levels of cooperation among physicians, managers, patients, specialists, and professionals. The supportive role of top management in addressing the three issues and in providing resources and other infrastructures is obviously essent

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Background and Aim: The Internet is an essential tool to access information in the new era, and the quality of information obtained from the web is very important. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to investigate the familiarity with and the application of criteria used to assess the quality of such data at Gonabad University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: This survey study was done in the second semester of academic year 2012-2013. The population of the study consisted of all 235 bachelor students at Gonabad University of Medical Sciences. A five-item questionnaire based on the Likert scale was used for data collection the reliability and validity of this questionnaire had been determined by similar studies. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version 20 and descriptive statistics. Results: The results of this study revealed that most of the students paid much attention to the relevance of information (59.1%). Value-addedness (47.7%) and understandability (44.7%) enjoyed the next highest priorities. Consistency (19.1%) and credibility (12.8%) had the lowest priorities among students in terms of interest and application. Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that the students of Gonabad University of Medical Sciences did not pay attention to all information quality criteria in the web rather, they paid more attention to the relevance and valueaddedness of the information while searching the web.

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Background and Aim: Identification of possible animal sources of infection is applied for preventing the outbreak and progressive epidemics of infection. The aim of present study is isolation of pathogenic and opportunistic fungi from the skin of ownership dogs with emphasize on transmission risk of fungal zoonoses in rural areas of Meshkin Shahr, Ardebil province of Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional and descriptive study was performed in laboratory of Medical Mycology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences from April 2011 to November 2012. Hundred and thirty dogs were studied. Collected scales and hair samples were examined by direct smear and SC, SCC and DTM culture with the aim of full coverage of whole fungal growth such as saprophytic and pathogenic fungi for 1-3 weeks. Results: From 130 examined samples, Alternaria 41 (31.5%) as the most frequent, Chaetomium 1 (0.9%) and Nattrassia 1 (0.9%) as the least frequent saprophytic agents, were isolated from the samples. Conclusion: The dogs in these areas are not the source of infection for dermatophytosis and had no role in the epidemiology of the disease

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Background and Aim: Scientific and technological developments have promoted the status of organizational learning as a reasonable way to deal with the present changing circumstances. The development of organizational learning improves the performance of employees, and makes them feel satisfied. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational learning capabilities among the employees of Tehran hospitals.

Materials and Methods This descriptive, analytical study was conducted among 290 employees in 2014 in Tehran hospitals. For data collection, a three-part questionnaire (including demographic characteristics, Gomez`s Organizational Learning Capability Questionnaire and Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire) was given to 290 employees. Data were analyzed using the SPSS-20 software with Spearman test.

Results: Mean scores of organizational learning capability and job satisfaction were (3.03± 0.61) and (2.8± 0.61), respectively. Among the dimensions of organizational learning capability, the highest score pertained to systematic perspective (3.29± 0.78); regarding job satisfaction, the highest score was related to organizational climate (3.23± 0.1). The results showed that there was a significant correlation between the dimensions of organizational learning capability and job satisfaction. Also, a significant correlation was observed between organizational learning capabilities and job satisfaction.

Conclusion: Organizational learning improves the performance of employees and is positively correlated with their satisfaction. Also, employee satisfaction is one of the factors affecting their performance. Therefore, managers can make employees satisfied and develop their organization through improving organizational learning.

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Background and Aim: In recent years, the family physician plan has been implemented as a main strategy of the health system in Iran. Therefore, the necessity to reform organizational structure based on new goals and strategies is felt more than before. The aim of this study is to review and summarize all cases about Iran’s organizational structure and its challenges in primary healthcare system.

Materials and Methods: This study is a systematic review. All relevant databases, bibliography of related papers, and laws were searched using appropriate search strategies and keywords. To evaluate the quality of selected papers, CASP tool was applied by two experts, and their choices were discussed to reach a final decision.

Results: Fourteen final cases were categorized in two groups: papers and upstream policies and laws. The results revealed the ineffectiveness of current organizational structure at different levels. The majority of the findings suggested proper reforms in the system. Centralization and delegation processes were the main dimensions studied.

Conclusion: Due to fundamental changes in goals and strategies, certain reforms in the organizational structure of health system in Iran are indispensable, especially at peripheral levels.

Key words: Primary Health Care System, Organizational Structure, Iran

Background and Aim: In recent years, the family physician plan has been implemented as a main strategy of the health system in Iran. Therefore, the necessity to reform organizational structure based on new goals and strategies is felt more than before. The aim of this study is to review and summarize all cases about Iran’s organizational structure and its challenges in primary healthcare system.

Materials and Methods: This study is a systematic review. All relevant databases, bibliography of related papers, and laws were searched using appropriate search strategies and keywords. To evaluate the quality of selected papers, CASP tool was applied by two experts, and their choices were discussed to reach a final decision.

Results: Fourteen final cases were categorized in two groups: papers and upstream policies and laws. The results revealed the ineffectiveness of current organizational structure at different levels. The majority of the findings suggested proper reforms in the system. Centralization and delegation processes were the main dimensions studied.

Conclusion: Due to fundamental changes in goals and strategies, certain reforms in the organizational structure of health system in Iran are indispensable, especially at peripheral levels.

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Background and Aim: Employees are an organization's greatest assets and organizational performance is dependent to employee’s performance. Presence of inefficient employees can make other employees to be less productive. To improve inefficient employees to high performance level, it is necessary to analyze the performance of employees. This study aims to identify and determine poor performance dimensions and cluster inefficient staffs.

Materials and Methods: This study was an analytical and descriptive research. The research made questionnaire developed for data collection and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA) techniques in SPSS used to analyze the research data.

Results: The PCA results showed that six poor performance dimensions were behavioral problems, low results, lack of self-efficacy and creativity, sabotage, postponing, and individualism. The CA results declared that poor performers can be classified to five clusters include poor behavior, lazy, jobber, poor ability, marginal, managers believed that root of employees’ in inefficiency attributed jobber, poor ability, and lazy employees to internal causes, and attributed bad behavior and marginal employees to external causes.

Conclusion: The type of inefficiency and its dimensions should be identified in order to make effective decisions for inefficient employees. Employees clustering propose a new attitude toward inefficiency differentiation comparing to literature,  and this five group clustering based on empirical data expected to be more applicable in practice.

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Background and Aim: Nurses’ main tasks include the provision of healthcare services at the highest levels of quality and quantity standards, and based on the findings of scientific research. The aim of the present study is to identify and determine the barriers of evidence-based practice among nurses of Qazvin hospitals, in Iran, at 2013.

Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional research was a descriptive- analytic study conducted among 260 nurses practicing in six hospitals of Qazvin in 2013. The barriers scale questionnaire developed by Funk, et al. was used to examine the four dimensions of evidence-based practice (EBP) barriers including adopter, organization, innovation and communication characteristics. To analyze the data, descriptive and analytic statistics were used.

Results: The mean score of EBP barriers among subjects was 3.07 out of 4. Among the barriers, "organization" and "adopter" dimensions had the highest and lowest mean scores, respectively. There was no significant statistical relationship between gender and EBP performance, But a significant relationship was observed between organizational dimension with age, employment type and work experience.

Conclusion: Since “organization” was found to be the main  barrier to  the use of research in nursing performance, policy-makers and administrators should pay attention to the use of research in performance, the establishment of a research culture in organization, the creation of appropriate infrastructures, and the allocation of sufficient time to the nursing personnel to have access to evidences.

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Background and Aim: Nowadays, hospitals believe that applying the principles of management improve quality, and enhance competition and development. One of the ways to achieve these goals is the use of 5S. This study is aimed to determine and compare  supporting departments of Amir Alam Hospital before and after the implementation of 5S.

Materials and Methods: This descriptive analytical and cross-sectional study was conducted within three departments: Kitchen, laundry and the maintenance & repairs departments  of Amir Alam Hospital. Five checklists were designed for collecting information before and after the implementation of 5S within each department. Data analyses was performed using Wilcoxon test and SPSS version 19.

Results: Average rating after running 5S was more than before within the kitchen Section. However, there was a significant relationship before and after running 5S in only stage one and five. Within maintenance & repair and the Laundry departments, average rating after implementation of 5S was higher than using it before. In addition, all purposes with the exception of employees’ adornment, were statistically significant in all of five stages.

Conclusion: Implementation of 5S systems will contribute to increase in employees & patients’ efficiency and satisfaction, which in turn will lead to achieving higher productivity and economic growth. Therefore, we recommend other hospitals and departments to apply the concept of 5S.

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Background and Aim: Today, customer perception assessment as a way to measure satisfaction and expectations has an important role in improving the quality of services and organizational excellence. This study aims to measure customers’ perception at the Health Deputy of Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME).

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in 2012-2013. The population comprised the health deputies of medical universities, among which 13 of the universities were randomly selected. As the main customers of MOHME health deputy, these universities’ managers and experts were asked questions like a census. The data collection device was the national award standard questionnaire consisting of 2 sections and 26 questions. The data were analyzed by SPSS 18 with level.

Results: Of the 267 managers and experts, 147 (56.1%) were male. Many of them (57.3%) had a bachelor's degree. Most of them (91.6%) were employed in technical units. The average perceived level of managers and experts regarding their reputation and image was 3.3±0.7, production and service 3.1±0.7, support while and after providing services 3.0±0.7, and loyalty and honesty 3.3±0.8 out of a maximum 5 points, respectively. There was no significant relationship between administrators and experts’ perception level on the one hand, and individual and organizational factors on the other (P>0.05).

Conclusion: The study showed that customers’ perception of indices related to the quality of relationships, services and measures was at a moderate level. Therefore, it is recommended that the department of health should design and implement an appropriate intervention program for organizational excellence.