About

The Division of Rheumatology was founded in 1987 by Prof. Dr. Tevfik Akoğlu and is the first rheumatology clinic on the Asian side of Istanbul to offer fellowship training. Since 2025 the division has been chaired by Prof. Dr. Nevsun İnanç. Its faculty are Prof. Dr. Haner Direskeneli, Prof. Dr. Pamir Atagündüz, Prof. Dr. Fatma Alibaz-Öner and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Erdoğan. More than twenty rheumatologists have completed its internal medicine–rheumatology fellowship programme.

While the division cares for the full range of rheumatic diseases, its academic work centres on inflammatory systemic diseases: rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's syndrome, spondyloarthropathies (ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, enteropathic arthritis), lupus, familial Mediterranean fever, Behçet's disease and vasculitides. The division also provides national and international training in musculoskeletal, salivary gland and lung ultrasonography, and conducts research in these fields.

The division has established national study groups on Takayasu arteritis, Behçet's disease and interstitial lung disease, takes part in the TURKBIO registry network, and, through working groups set up under the European and American rheumatology societies (DCVAS, OMERACT and others), has contributed to classification criteria and to treatment and ultrasonography guidelines.