Selim’s career narrated by late Dr. Lynn T. Staheli, founder of POSNA & JPO, author of eight books on pediatric orthopedics & an invited lecturer in 78 countries.
Selim Yalcin, M.D. is a native of the Old World. His country: Turkey became the first modern, independent, and democratic nation of the East rising from the ashes of the Ottoman World. His family has lived in Istanbul for more than three centuries. His father and mother studied economics in Istanbul in the 1940’s under the tuition of famous German professors who had fled from Hitler. During the postwar decades, his parents found opportunities to visit the Universities of Nottingham, Harvard, and Stanford. Returning to their homeland, they served as University Professors educating generations of economists in Istanbul University. Dr. Yalcin attended a classical German Gymnasium in Istanbul for eight years, learned German, English, and French, and dedicated himself to an athletic life of sculling, crew coaching, and sailing. After finishing high school, the soul of the ’70s inspired Dr. Yalcin to study medicine and to help mankind as a physician and a teacher.
Upon graduation from the medical school, he volunteered to work as a general practitioner in underserved rural areas. In 1987, he was sent to a historical copper mining community in Artvin in South Caucasia. The collection of hamlets around the 3,000 year-old mines were scattered over the rough highland extending to the Russian border. The roads were dangerous, many places had no electricity, and education and health services were limited. Selim began raising funds to repair a 30 year-old Land Rover to start a vaccination campaign and to visit the sick in their homes. He started a mini-laboratory for the diagnosis and follow up of diabetes, infections, and pregnancies. Within a few months, the tiny cottage he was sent to was transformed into a mini-hospital where small operations and natural childbirth were performed with referrals from a circle of 30 miles. In the same year, Selim decided to specialize in orthopaedic surgery because he had seen the effects of poorly treated musculoskeletal diseases upon the Turkish Society where disabled children and adults had very little chance to get a proper education and earn a living, thus becoming a burden to their families. With the start of his residency in Marmara University School of Medicine in Istanbul, he became a tutor for medical students from the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia as well as his own country. In 1992, Dr. Yalcin became Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and had the opportunity to visit many professional meetings to improve his medical knowledge. He had the chance to learn from professors in Europe and America and to share experiences with colleagues from all over the world. He worked as a Visiting Fellow in Germany with Professor Wagner for six months, and also in Pittsburgh and at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for eight months. At the time, he dedicated his career mainly to pediatric orthopaedics and visited the pioneering hospitals of Children’s Orthopaedics like the Shriners Hospital and the Seattle Children’s to extend his knowledge. He was one of the founders of the Spina Bifida Family Association in Istanbul, Turkey, and served on the board for many years. Selim also started the first family education sessions in Istanbul with parents of children with Spina Bifida. Selim has written books on Cerebral Palsy, Spina Bifida, and Gait Analysis, two of which are for family education. He has translated Professor Graf’s Diagnosis of Developmental Hip Dysplasia book into Turkish. He has made four short documentary films on Cerebral Palsy, Spina Bifida, Gait Analysis, and the Graf method of Ultrasonography for the diagnosis of Developmental Hip Dysplasia. He has started a modern orthesis workshop in the University producing state of the art braces and RGO’s. When vigorous fund-raising efforts were not sufficient, he has spent from a family budget. His pediatric orthopaedics clinic received referrals from all over the country of 70 million and even from the 3 million population of the Turkish worker community in Europe. In 2002 he started the Eastern European and Mediterranean Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Disorders Meeting that continued biannually for more than 20 years. His Help Guide to Cerebral Palsy book that he authored in English was translated to Indonesian, Vietnamese and Chinese, and downloaded over million copies on the web. Selim became full professor of orthopedics in Marmara University School of Medicine and was chairman of the Department of Orthopedics in 2011. He dedicated himself to helping disabled children and adults. He is proud and happy that many adolescent and young adults who have never walked before are walking today after surgery and rehabilitation.
Chairman & Professor of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Marmara University, School of Medicine, Department of Orthopaedics & Traumatology; 2004-2012 Resident, Assistant & Associate Professor at the same institution; 1988 – 2004 Medical Education: Istanbul Univ., Istanbul School of Medicine: 1980 – 1986 High School: Deutsche Schule Istanbul: 1972 – 1980
Experience Visiting Fellow in the Department of Pediatric Orthopaedics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, U.S.; February 1, 1996 – May 18, 1996. Visiting Research Scholar in University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Department of Orthopaedics Surgery, U.S.; November 1, 1995 – January 31, 1996. Visiting Fellow at Krankenhaus Rummelsberg, Nürnberg, Germany (360-Bed Specialty Hospital, Dr. H. Wagner); March, 1994 – April, 1994. General Practitioner at Community Helth Center of Murgul, Artvin (Rural Mining Area in South Caucasia) 1987.
