11 September 2023, Geneva, Switzerland ― We are honoured to announce a new partnership between UNITAR and two major Turkish universities, Marmara University School of Medicine and the Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University School of Medicine, for a collaborative project on value-based healthcare. To facilitate this work, UNITAR has also entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Turkish Ministry of Health.

UNITAR, in collaboration with the Global Surgery Foundation, launched the Value-Based Healthcare (VBHC) project in 2021, with the aim to boost health systems globally, increase collaboration, and enhance patient-centered care. The partnership focuses on breast cancer care, in line with the growing rate of non-communicable diseases in Türkiye and worldwide.

The partnership agreements build upon our existing collaborations with the two universities and represent interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation, two major pillars of VBHC. The project will include both research components and sustainable solution building with context-specific training, innovative data collection tools, and awareness initiatives to improve understanding of breast cancer treatment on both the patient and provider ends.

This partnership represents a stride towards sustainable and equitable health systems, and we look forward to beginning our work with our Turkish colleagues towards the goal of capacity-building in breast cancer surgical care.