Association Mission

The mission of the association is to advance the creation, communication and application of knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.

about us

About us

There are 225 Board Certified Rheumatologists in Iran. Rheumatology originated in Iran four decades ago. Until the mid sixties, rheumatology in Iran was practiced by all physicians, mainly internists, orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons. Among them, three names were famous in Tehran for the management of rheumatic diseases: Roubin Aftandelian, Yaghoob Mohandess, and Nosratollah Sharif. They were general practitioners who were devoted to rheumatic diseases. The era of modern rheumatology started in Tehran in the late sixties by Saeed Bani-Hashemi, Amir-khan Chafizadeh, Fereydoun Davatchi, Eshagh Eshaghof, Reza Moghtader, Firouz Panahi, Farrokh Sarkari (who studied rheumatology in France), and Mohammad Shafizadeh (who studied rheumatology in Switzerland). A few years later, Ali-Asghar Eghtedari (1970, studied rheumatology in England), Kazem Shayan (1971, studied physical medicine and rheumatology in England), Hadi Hedayati (1974, studied rheumatology in the USA), Gholam-Ali Nasseh (1975, studied rheumatology in Switzerland and pediatric rheumatology in London), Jafar Forghanizadeh (1978, studied rheumatology in the USA), and Akbar Nahavandi (1978, who studied rheumatology in the USA) joined the rheumatology community in Iran.

The Iranian Rheumatology Association (IRA) was established in 1973 under the patronage of the Iranian Medical Council. In 1978, IRA was officially recognized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and, in 2006, by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education. The first members were: Saeed Bani-Hashemi, Amir-khan Chafizadeh, Mohammad Chafizadeh, Fereydoun Davatchi, Eshagh Eshaghof, Reza Moghtader, Firouz Panahi, Farrokh Sarkari, and Javad Vazirzadeh. At present, the Iranian Rheumatology Association has 250 members.

Academic rheumatology was started by Mohammad Shafizadeh at the former National University (now recognized as Shaheed Beheshti University) in 1967 and Fereydoun Davatchi at Tehran University in 1969. Soon, Reza Moghtader, Firouz Panahi, and Amir-Khan Chafizadeh joined Tehran University to form the backbone of academic rheumatology in Iran. In 1975 Kazem Shayan joined National University and Gholam-Ali Nasseh, Mashhad University. In 1978, Jafar Forghanizadeh joined Iranshahr Hospital (affiliated with the Imperial Medical Center of Iran which later became Iran Medical Center in 1979 and Iran University of Medical Sciences in 1983).


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