Dr. Şuayıp Birinci, Deputy Minister of Health of the Republic of Turkey, came together with the members of our university at the conference on "Future and Technology in Health" held at Teoman Duralı Conference Hall on November 20. In the conference, Dr. Şuayıp Birinci discussed the innovations in the health sector after the pandemic and Turkey's position within the scope of world standards in health in the light of scientific analysis and data in his evaluations on the future and technology in health.
In his speech, Dr. Birinci mentioned that the population growth rate has significantly decreased compared to the 1900s, and that this situation will bring along factors such as elderly dependency and elderly diseases in 2050 and beyond, and that we have started to experience all the dangers brought by urbanization, which is at 77%. In his speech where he talked about the importance of carbon footprint, Mr. Birinci pointed out that before the opening of the third airport, the number of applications to the emergency services of hospitals around Sabiha Gökçen Airport has gradually increased in recent times, and that this is explained by the carbon footprint left by the airplanes around the airport by experts, and therefore, the cities that we call "smart cities" should first try to be established as "healthy cities".
Underlining that Turkey is in a remarkable position in the field of digitalization in health among OECD countries, Dr. Birinci mentioned the success of more than 80 digital health applications that we have developed with software technology in this context and pointed out that 82% of the country's population is aware of and uses the digital health application e-Nabız, which is a record number. Underlining that the traditional Turkish family structure, where the elderly and the young live together in the same house, has a great contribution to this, Birinci stated that our country is at a very good point in terms of the spread of digitalization in health compared to European countries where individualization and loneliness of the elderly are increasing.
In his speech, Prof. Dr. Şuayıp Birinci emphasized that improvements in health do not only cover the health sector, but also the environment, economy, food and agriculture, education, youth and sports, culture and transportation. Noting that 75% of emerging infectious diseases are of animal origin, Dr. Birinci said that air pollution causes 6.7 million deaths annually. Dr. Birinci concluded his speech by underlining that health policies are meaningless unless they are produced in every policy.
Republic of Turkey Deputy Minister of Health Dr. Şuayıp Birinci's conference on Future and Technology in Health ended with the presentation of gifts by our Rector Prof. Atilla Arkan.
