Turkish Nephrology on the Centenary of the Republic

Abstract

After the establishment of the Turkish Republic on October 29, 1923, the main targets in the field of health were determined as combating contagious diseases, increasing the number of physicians and healthcare personnel, improving the interregional distribution of physicians, giving women the right to receive medical education, and granting only Turkish citizens the right to practice medicine (except formerly working foreign physicians and those working in hospitals established by foreign states). Modern medical education was introduced in the Ottoman Empire with the “Tıphane ve Cerrahhane-i Amire (Mekteb-i Tıbbiye-i Şahane)” school opened on March 14, 1827. After the implementation of the University reform in Turkey in 1933, Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine became one of the most important centres in Europe with the contributions of well-known foreign scholars and Turkish faculty members. After World War II, the first medical school of the republican era was opened in Ankara in 1945. This article provides a chronological review of the developments in Turkish nephrology during the Republican period.