About TUHKE

Turkish Public Health and Chronic Diseases Institute (TUHKE), one of the institutions of Health Institutes of Turkey (TUSEB) was founded with the vision of being an institution that serves the country and humanity in the field of science and technologies in relation to public health and chronic diseases and aims to meet th ecountry's demand for andvanced technology and innovation.

Our missions are; 

• To determine the priorities of the country in the field of public health and chronic diseases in accordsance with the national health strategies
• To carry out and have them made scientific research on the genetic, biological, clinical aspects and treatments of chronic diseases
• To coordinate and encourage these researches in cooperation with the public and private sectors
• To provide  and support a scientific environment for the researchers
• To prepare the national standards of diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of chronic diseases
• To carry out R&D activities aiming to develop new treatment methods

Determining the health burden of our country in the field of chronic diseases based on the existing studies; and conducting regular epidemiological studies in order to reach accurate, up-to-date, and reliable data on this subject are among our priorities. The fact that the prevalence of diabetes in the adult population in our country has doubled over the last ten years, from 7% to 14%, justifies serious measures to be taken concerning the public health. The prevalence of hypertension ranges between 21-26& and exceeds 60% in the 65+ age group. Similarly, hypertension ranges between 21-26% and over 60% in the 65+ age group. Taking into account the ration of the elderly population, which was 4-5% at the beginning of the 2000s, exceeded 9% in 2020, shows that Turkey has "middle-aged" population, not a "young" population anymore.

On the other hand, the influx of refugees coming to our country due to the political problems in our region in recent years has created an additional burden on preventive health services and brought up the infectious diseases that we are about to forget. With new pandemics such as COVID-19, this requires  the healthcare system to be prepared for changes at any time. 

According to statistics, the main causes of death range as hearth attack, hearth failure, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, cancers, traffic accidents, infant deaths, and chronic kidney failure. Therefore, it is vital to promote new intervention methods for the prevention of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in society. Positive nationwide results obtained in recent years in combating tobacco use and reducing salt consumtion have raised our hopes for similar success stories with programs promoting healthy lifestyle changes aiming to prevent and control diabetes, obesity, and hypertension.

Although there are many scientists trained in our country, it is a fact that we are far behind international standards. At this point, one of our main problems is the lack of ean education system that will change society's view of science and increase the value of knowledge production and analytical thinking. In recent years, as a country policy, R&D activities have been encouraged and neccessary legal regulations have ben made. We are aware that the only way to move from the middle-income group we are  into a country with a higher socioeconomic level requires  not only being a user in the field of science and technology but also being productive and innovative. Although many articles are contributed to the literature on public health and other diseases, this effort is not enough to reveal a new method, approach, or a patented product for diagnosis and treatment. Another factor is the insufficient number of multidisciplinary studies. For this reason, we aim to encourage and support researchers in the fields of health and various engineering fields to work together on joint field projects. 

As we are relatively newly established, we have started to identify priority issues while working  on legislation and organizational features. First of all, we plan to design and support scientific projects on  the "prevalance, control and prevention of NCD's", which is one of the primary public health problems of our country. Secondly, we aim to work on "improving quality of life, reducing morbidity, disability and mortality" in special groups such as the elderly and those with rare diseases.

Undoubtedly, we also have some positive facts. It is a great oppurtunity that we have a large number of distinguished scientists living all over the world, esspecially in the countries most advanced in science and technology. As the Institute, we see this human resource as a great value for our country. In particular, the support they will provide for the education of our young researcher candidates will create an invaluable input in shaping and directing our future science policy.

Prof. Dr. İlhan Satman, M.D.
Director
Turkish Public Health and Chronic Diseases Institute