letter to the editor: the applications of health informatics in medical tourism industry of iran

Some countries in africa and the middle east, such as iran, have potential advantages in medical tourism industry, including low-cost and high-quality services, competent physicians and marginal natural and historical attractions. a systematic and comprehensive pro-gram ensure the development of medical tourism industry and lack of systems to collect information about the health status of tourists, inefficient information systems, and legal problems was discussed as major challenges in policymaking process. telecommunication and informatics have important role in establishment a strong infrastructure to improve political, social and legal issues in this industry. health informatics is an interdisciplinary field of in-formation science, computer and health care that deals with resources, equipment and methods to improve acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of health and biomedicine information.