in 1999, dr. ala returned to iran to organise the biennial who eastern mediterranean blood transfusion directors' meeting in tehran, and thereafter, he has spent a significant part of the year working at the new-found iranian comprehensive haemophilia care centre (ichcc) in tehran as honorary president. the ichcc is a non-governmental, non-profit centre established by the iranian hemophilia society in 2001, dedicated to the diagnosis and management of inherited bleeding and thrombotic disease, and affiliated to the world federation of hemophilia. both the phenotypic and genotypic laboratories participate with success, in the specific external quality control exercises (neqas) organised at sheffield university in the uk, and the centre effectively acts as a national reference centre for haemostatic disorders. the ichcc offers specialised clinics in dental care, physiotherapy, orthopaedic surgery, gynaecology, psychiatry and hepatology.