Table 3.

Barriers of interdisciplinary education in Iranian teaching hospitals

Open code	Sub-category	Category
Defining subspecialty domains, poor communication between specialties, and isolation of specialties	Influence of the dominant culture of specialization in the society	Barriers of interdisciplinary education
Failing to recognize the role of other disciplines in a specialized or professional domain
Lack of a vertical relationship between specialists and subspecialists
The main goal of medical students being the selection of a specialty and focusing their studies on that specialty
The society trusting subspecialists more than internists and general practitioners
Failing to define interdisciplinary interactions in the curriculum	Poor interdisciplinary education infrastructure
Unpreparedness of departments for interdisciplinary education
Separation of departments
Lack of communication between medical faculties
Absence of new contents of professional knowledge for interdisciplinary education
Lack of cultural context and acceptance of professors to incorporate interdisciplinary education
Unfamiliarity of Medical teachers and students with the philosophy of interdisciplinary education
Negative attitudes towards teamwork, and lack of cooperation among faculty members	Individualism as a value of the society
Dominant spirit of individualism
Medicine and other disciplines looking down on each other
Unwillingness to recognize the role of other professions in the process of treatment and rehabilitation