Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)

• Vision
• Director's Statement
• Governance
  • Board
  • Scientific Oversight Group
• History
• Team

• Who we are
  • Vision
  • Director's Statement
  • Governance
  • History
  • Team
• What we do
  • Research
  • Education and Training
• What you can do
  • Seminars
  • Opportunities
• Information Resources
  • News
  • Publications
  • Datasets

Tomris Türmen

Dr. Tomris Türmen is President, International Children’s Center, and Head, Department of Pediatrics/Newborn Medicine, University of Ankara Medical School, Ankara, Turkey.

Dr. Türmen is a pediatrician and newborn specialist with a strong public health background. She had working and teaching experience in Pakistan, Canada and Singapore and at the same time, she had an academic career and worked in government service in Turkey. During the past 14 years she worked at WHO leading international public health programs.

After graduating from the University of Ankara Medical School in Turkey in 1970, Dr. Türmen was trained in pediatrics at the New York Medical College in New York, USA, and worked there as Resident and Chief Resident (1971-1974) providing care to pediatric patients as well as teaching medical students. She worked between 1974 and 1976 at the Central Government Polyclinic in Islamabad, Pakistan. In Turkey, from 1976 to 1978, as assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Ankara, she established its first Newborn Care Unit as well as a follow-up clinic for maternal health and high-risk newborns that became one of the biggest health care centers to serve urban-poor populations in central Turkey. Between 1985 and 1988, she worked at the Maternal and Neonatal Unit of the Department of Pediatrics of the Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore.

In 1981, Dr. Türmen was appointed Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Ankara where she started a new curriculum for teaching and training medical students, nurses and pediatricians in the field of maternal, perinatal and neonatal health. The Neonatal Intensive Care unit became a Regional Referral Center, as well as a training center for nurses and midwives specializing in maternal and newborn care including family planning. Dr. Türmen worked with the Ministry of Health to incorporate a public health approach in basic maternal and newborn care for wide-scale implementation within national health programs for mothers, infants and children. In 1988, she was appointed full Professor of Pediatrics in the University of Ankara.

Dr. Türmen became Deputy Under-Secretary of Health in 1991 and was responsible for Health Care Reform and scaling up essential health care services for needy populations. In 1992, Dr. Türmen was appointed Director of WHO’s Division of Family Health. She was actively involved in the conceptual work leading to the Cairo and Beijing Conferences in 1994 and 1995 and was responsible for coordinating WHO’s input and involvement in the conferences.

In 1995, Dr. Türmen was promoted to the post of Executive Director responsible for the Family and Reproductive Health Cluster, which encompassed the Women’s Health, Child Health, Adolescent Health, Reproductive Health, Reproductive Health Research and Nutrition Divisions of WHO.

In 1998, Dr. Türmen was appointed Senior Policy Adviser to the new Director-General of WHO, Dr G. H. Brundtland. In 2000, Dr. Türmen became Executive Director, Family and Community Health Cluster with responsibility for Gender and Women’s Health, Child and Adolescent Health and Development, Reproductive Health and Reproductive Health Research. In December 2000, she established the Department of HIV/AIDS within the Family and Community Health Cluster.

In 2003, Dr. Türmen was appointed as the Representative of the Director-General of the World Health Organization by the late Director-General, Dr J. W. Lee. She was given the task of guiding WHO’s work on public health and intellectual property and was responsible for the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health. That Commission published an analytical report which formed the base of an important resolution in the World Health Assembly in 2006 to find new solutions to address the research and development needs of neglected diseases.

Dr. Türmen started her professional life as a clinician, academic and researcher, and then moved to public health with a particular focus on strengthening health systems and programs in resource-poor settings. She is committed to combat poverty and reduce inequities. She is a strong advocate of women’s health, gender equality and human rights. Dr. Türmen is a leading figure in key health professional and women’s associations and the author or co-author of many scientific papers and books.

Dr. Türmen’s degrees and fellowships include: M.D. (1970), Specialty diploma in Pediatrics (1974), Clinical and Research Fellow in Newborn Medicine, McGill University, Canada (1978-1980), Diplomate of American Board of Pediatrics (1981), Subspecialty diploma in Neonatology/Perinatology (1984).