Younes Panahi says Iran currently has nearly 1,700 knowledge-based centers working on health technology. These include 13 specialized technology parks.
“Indices of health tech development in the world are assessed as innovation indices in the world,” he said.
Panahi further explained that the indices cover organizational structure, human and research resources, infrastructure, market complexity and business complexity, which show a country’s economic power in the field. The output, he said, is technological and innovative knowhow.
He said Iran is lagging behind in supervision, business environment and how easily one can begin a business, along with foreign investments and cooperation of universities and industries, which need improvement.
The official said to help address the shortcomings, the health ministry needs to make sure the health sector makes its purchases of technological products from the domestic health tech market.
Panahi also called for an integrated management of heath tech products, through greater financial support and creation of the required software and hardware infrastructure.
He said these steps, when coupled with facilitation of permits issued by the Food and Drug Administration, will help remove obstacles to domestic output of health tech products.
