A joint meeting of the Damari Community Ophthalmology Research Center, the School of Public Health of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, and the National Institute for Health Research was held on January 31 at Farabi Hospital. The meeting was attended by Dr. Rafi-Nejad (Dean of the School of Public Health), Dr. Jamshidi (Head of the Student Research and Social Accountability Center of the School of Public Health), Dr. Ehsani (Representative of Dr. Akbari Sari and Head of the Human Resources Department at the National Institute for Health Research), along with deputies and colleagues from the Damari Community Ophthalmology Research Center and the Translational Ophthalmology Research Center. 

During the meeting, areas of joint collaboration among the three institutions were reviewed and discussed. Emphasizing the need for synergy between treatment and prevention, participants explored practical pathways for cooperation. Referring to the role of tertiary and subspecialty hospitals such as Farabi in delivering advanced clinical services, and the position of the School of Public Health in improving health literacy and promoting healthy lifestyles, attendees stressed that any gap between these two sectors could have serious consequences for society.

The role of research centers with a social medicine approach, including the Damari Research Center, was also highlighted as a vital link between policy-making and implementation. By adopting a holistic view of the social determinants of disease and conducting field-based activities, these centers help extend the highly specialized services of referral hospitals to underserved areas. In addition, the importance of raw and field data generated by such centers for epidemiological research was underscored—data that can steer research away from non-applied knowledge production and toward addressing real-world public health challenges.