The 1st International Traditional and Complementary Medicine Congress organized under the auspices of the Presidency and in cooperation with the Turkish Ministry of Health, World Health Organization (WHO) and Health Sciences University ended.
Bringing together many leading experts, the Congress ended with the closing ceremony held in Istanbul Congress Center and Prof. Dr. Eyüp Gümüş, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, stated in his speech that 4 thousand 200 persons attended the Congress and around 200 topics were discussed and further added:
“This is the first Congress organized in this field. We established the Traditional and Complementary Medicine Institute under the Health Sciences Presidency of Turkey. We will review all outputs of this Congress and publish the results on scientific journals and announce them worldwide. In this regard, we can reevaluate the thousands-year old practices and use them for the health services provision.”
Deputy Undersecretary Elif Güler Erkazancı stated in her remarks that a total of 304 speakers – 77 foreigners - made verbal presentations in 63 sessions, and 495 poster presentations were made. According to statement of the Deputy Undersecretary, around 600 healthcare professionals from 38 countries took part in 19 workshop organizations, and 4 ministries, 7 universities, 4 training and research hospitals, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, 7 NGOs and 60 private sector representatives opened a booths in the exhibition area.
WHO Turkey Representative Dr. Parvel Ursu underlined that modern medicine and traditional and complementary medicine can support one another in an integrated way for reaching the health targets. “Traditional and complementary medicine should take its rightful place in overcoming the health problems.”
Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yaser Müslümanoğlu, GETAT (Traditional and Complementary Medicine) Application Center of the Health Sciences University, said that “Traditional and Complementary Medicine has recently become an area of interest for both Turkey and the rest of the world. This may be one of the largest and most comprehensive congresses organized in the world in this field. We will continue such efforts in the coming years”.