Minister of Health Prof. Dr. Kemal Memişoğlu made the opening speech at the 10th Session of the Turkish Medical World Congress, which started on Friday, November 15, 2024 and touched upon the following issues:
The Congress Allows Us to Collaborate in Developing Solutions
“The Turkish Medical World Congress has become a platform that not only provides a scientific meeting ground every year, but also allows us to collaborate in developing solutions to health problems at an international level. Thus, we aim for scientists, health managers and policy makers to contribute to the field of health at a global level by sharing their visions, experiences and solution suggestions. This Congress enables us to seek solutions together in the field of health, to develop innovative solutions to our common problems, and also lays the foundations for a will to increase the resilience of global health systems. Today, it is very valuable for us to have the opportunity to share the best practices and suggestions to carry our health systems further with you. With the contributions of each of you, we will discover together the solutions that will make our health systems more durable, accessible and sustainable.”
We Come Together to Discuss How We Can Best Serve Our People in Crises
“Each of us is aware that solidarity and cooperation are critical in protecting health and developing sustainable health services. We all experienced the necessity of this need in a painful way during the earthquake centered in Kahramanmaraş on February 6, 2023, which was referred to as the “disaster of the century.” I respectfully commemorate our citizens who lost their lives in this tragic event and once again offer my condolences to their families and our country. The earthquake reminded us once again how vital it is to establish disaster-resistant health systems. This painful experience showed us how important it is to act together and take steps to establish resilient health systems. This disaster clearly revealed the effects of solidarity, cooperation and preparedness on health services. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the friendly countries, international organizations and all our healthcare professionals who selflessly worked with us during these difficult days. Being strong in the face of disasters not only relieves our suffering, but also revives the spirit of solidarity that brings societies back to their feet. We come together here today to make our health systems more resilient and to discuss how we can best serve our people in both natural disasters and man-made crises.”
We Aim to Achieve a Health Model That Will Meet Health Needs with Local and National Resources
“We need a similar spirit of solidarity in regions like Gaza, which is unfortunately affected by war and conflict. The genocide and brutality experienced in Gaza has once again revealed that man-made crises can be just as devastating as natural disasters. Targeting hospitals, places of worship, schools and civilian areas has very serious consequences for health services and aggravates the ethical and humanitarian responsibilities that health workers face.
International cooperation and humanitarian aid support have become a necessity for patients and injured people in war zones like Gaza. These events clearly show that health services for disasters are not limited to natural disasters, but that we must have the flexibility and resilience to respond to man-made crises as well. Even in war zones, hospitals and health institutions must remain the most reliable shelters, and human conscience requires this. As Türkiye, we are a country that has always taken a stance towards protecting innocent people and ensuring uninterrupted health services under the leadership of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. This stance requires us to prioritize our responsibility to serve public health under all circumstances. Therefore, it is a very high priority for us that our health systems can survive and serve public health under all circumstances, even in crisis situations. One of the main goals we will address in this Congress is to further develop our international cooperation to strengthen the resilience of our health systems and to create a more prepared and effective health infrastructure against crises.
We Aim to Minimize External Dependency with the Productive Health Model
“At this point, I would like to briefly mention about Health Institutes of Türkiye, namely TUSEB, which plays an important role in the efforts to strengthen the innovative, sustainable and independent structure of our country in the field of health in order to achieve our goals of resilience and independence in the field of health. TUSEB is a strategic institution that encourages research and development activities in the fields of health sciences and biotechnology and aims to increase our country’s knowledge and technology production capacity in the field of health. Since its establishment, TUSEB has made significant contributions to our country in many areas such as localization of health technologies, development of biotechnological products and support for R&D studies. At the same time, it presents a strong vision for the development of local health technologies and ensuring independence in the health sector. In this context, TUSEB continues its multifaceted studies throughout the country to develop high value-added local health products and innovative R&D projects. In line with this vision, the “Productive Health Model” developed under the leadership of TUSEB stands out as a strong strategy that aims to reduce external dependency not only in disaster periods but also in the health sector in general and to gain strategic independence in the field of health. With this model, Türkiye aims for independence in health technologies; it aims to minimize external dependency by supporting domestic production in critical health products such as medicines, medical supplies and medical equipment.”
Technology Transfer Offices to be Established under the Coordination of TUSEB
“In order for the Productive Health Model to be successful and for domestic health products to gain a place in global competition, it is planned to establish technology transfer offices under the coordination of TUSEB. These offices will ensure that the innovative ideas of healthcare professionals and scientists from all over our country are transformed into concrete products. With technology transfer offices, academic knowledge will be transferred to the industry, and R&D projects will be supported and domestic production will be focused on. Thus, our country will take firm steps towards becoming an innovative and self-sufficient country in health technologies. In this process, TUSEB attaches great importance to national and international collaborations. In order to support the R&D processes of domestic health products, comprehensive collaborations are being established with various health and research institutes, especially our universities. In addition, partnerships are established with friendly and brotherly countries in the international arena to develop scientific projects and studies are carried out on regional and global solutions. Thanks to these collaborations, our country aims to play an effective role in the field of health not only locally but also internationally. In particular, the rapid provision of medical devices and medicines needed during disaster periods through domestic production will increase our country’s capacity to respond quickly and effectively to regional and global health crises.”
We Bring Healthcare Services to Every Corner of Our Country
“In line with the principle that health services should be equal, fair and accessible, our country is taking important steps to strengthen its health infrastructure. We are bringing health services to every corner of our country by developing primary health services, modernizing our existing hospitals and implementing new health investments. As the Ministry of Health, we are working meticulously on a continuously developing health system and providing qualified health services. In this context, the goal of strengthening Türkiye’s ties with Turkish scientists living abroad is a part of our efforts to turn our solidarity in the field of health into an international power. With the studies we carry out in this field, we aim to strengthen communication networks with our scientists who have accumulated knowledge and experience abroad, increase knowledge sharing and develop joint projects in health technologies. Research and development activities are one of the fundamental elements of these collaborations and provide great opportunities for our scientists to transfer their knowledge to our country and for projects in this field to be implemented in Türkiye. The infrastructure and technology transfer offices provided by TUSEB serve as an important bridge for these collaborations to produce concrete results. These offices ensure that the innovative ideas of our scientists and healthcare professionals are commercialized and transformed into products, thus enabling the development of local solutions that can respond to global health crises. These projects will contribute to the strengthening of the health systems of not only Türkiye but also the Turkic world and friendly countries. At the same time, we aim to transform the ties we have established with scientists from the Turkic world and friendly countries into a permanent cooperation structure. These bridges, which will increase our capacity to act together against health crises, will accelerate the sharing of information and technology, and will enable mutual exchange of information and support through joint projects. With such cooperation, we aim to transform the Productive Health Model, which aims to create independence and innovative solutions in health technologies, into a regional solidarity example.
We Will Discover Solutions Together
“Today, by coming together here, we are taking an important step towards building a stronger future in the field of health. I sincerely believe that this Congress will give birth to new ideas, innovative projects and solid collaborations with the valuable contributions of our scientists, healthcare professionals and experts. Throughout this Congress, we will discover solutions that will make our healthcare systems more durable, accessible and sustainable with your valuable contributions. Our greatest wish is that each of your ideas, the friendships to be established here and the collaborations to be made will turn into long-term projects. I would like to express my gratitude to all scientists who will participate in our Congress and share their support and knowledge with us, our valuable guests from friendly countries and all our participants. I would like to thank all the authorities, the organizing committee and my valuable colleagues who contributed to the realization of this important meeting.
