Socialization of health: An undeniable necessity for the formation of responsible medical universities in Iran

The world Health Organization introduced social responsibility for the medical universities centered on education, research, and provision of services. This definition states that social responsibility is "obligation of the medical schools to direct their education, research, and service activities towards addressing the priority health concerns of the community, region, and/or nation they have a mandate to serve. The priority health concerns are to be identified jointly by governments, health care organizations, health professionals, and the public" (۱).Using the above definition as a model, Iran's medical universities were expected to consider socialization of health much earlier than what actually recently happened. However, what has occurred in relation to community-oriented medicine in Iran over the last quarter century has mainly been focused on increasing community access to specialized medical services and hasty implementation of the family physician program in rural areas and some cities.Clearly, socialization of health is not possible with merely setting up a social deputy in the body of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education. Socialization of health means communal involvement in maintaining and promoting individual, social, and psychological health of the community, and this will only be achieved through community-based medical education that not only trains skilled and competent human resources, but also focuses on empowerment of the community, or in another sense, promotion of community health. In other words, it is necessary to consider social responsibility as a principle in the excellence of medical education (۲).