A Successful implementation of an idea to a nationally approved plan: Analyzing Iran's National Health Roadmap using the Kingdon model of policymaking

Introduction: Hospital beds, human resources, and medical equipment are the costliest elements in the health system and play an essential role at the time of treatment. In this paper, different phases of the NEDA 2026 project and its methodological approach were presented and its formulation process was analysed using the Kingdon model of policymaking. Methods: Iran Health Roadmap (NEDA 2026) project started in March 2016 and ended in March 2017. The main components of this project were hospital beds, clinical human resources, specialist personnel, capital medical equipment, laboratory facilities, emergency services, and service delivery model. Kingdon model of policymaking was used to evaluate NEDA 2026 development and implementation. In this study, all activities to accomplish each step in the Kingdon model was described. Results: The followings were done to accomplish the goals of each step: collecting experts’ viewpoint (problem identification and definition), systematic review of the literature, analysis of previous experiences, stakeholder analysis, economic analysis, and feasibility study (solution appropriateness analysis), three-round Delphi survey (policy survey and scrutinization), and intersectoral and interasectoral agreement (policy legislation). Conclusion: In the provision of an efficient health service, various components affect each other and the desired outcome, so they need to be considered as parts of an integrated system in developing a roadmap for the health system. Thus, this study demonstrated the cooperation process at different levels of Iran’s health system to formulate a roadmap to provide the necessary resources for the health sector for the next 10 years and to ensure its feasibility using the Kingdon policy framework.