Committees
Professor
Dr. Kürsat Yelken
Professor
Dr. Sevtap Akbulut
Professor
Dr. Hakan Birkent
Professor Dr. Kursat Yelken is a Professor of Otolaryngology, Head&Neck Surgery and a Fellow of the European Board of Otolaryngology, Head&Neck Surgery. After graduating from Ankara University, Faculty of Medicine, he became Otolaryngologist with a thesis entitled ''a comparison of voices of singing students studying in different music types, by means of acoustic analysis'' in 2005. He was awarded with a scholarship from The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey and served as a fellow at Harvard Medical School, MEEI Department of Laryngology between 2008-2009.
Prof. Dr. Kursat Yelken is the former president of Turkish Voice Speech and Swallowing Society and former president of VoiceIstanbul Congress. He published over 50 articles in international and national journals; continually gives lectures and makes presentations in international and national conferences. He is the founder of Voicest Clinic in Istanbul and continues to serve in this clinic since 2016.
Professor Dr. Sevtap Akbulut is a dedicated otolaryngologist, subspecializing in laryngology and phoniatry. Her special interests include voice disorders, professional and singing voice care, gender-affirming voice surgeries, dysphagia and associated swallowing disorders, neurolaryngology and laryngeal EMG.
She graduated from Hacettepe University School of Medicine in Ankara in 1995. She completed her residency at the Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery in Istanbul in 2002.
She is the National Coordinator of the Union of European Phoniatricians. She is the former president of the Speech Language and Swallowing Disorders Society in Turkey and congress president of the VoiceIstanbul 2025. She has authored many articles for peer reviewed journals. She lectures nationally and internationally in conferences, also participates in workshops and hands-on courses as instructor for education of laryngologists and speech language therapists.
Professor Dr. Hakan Birkent is a graduate of Gulhane Military Medical School, Ankara, Turkey. He completed his residency programme at the Otorhinolaryngology&Head and Neck Surgery Department of Gulhane Military Medical Academy in 2002, and has trained in laryngology at the Otolaryngology Department of University of Washington in Seattle,WA,USA between 2007-2008. He had the degree of Associate Professor in 2010, and Full Professor in 2019. He is now seeing his patients at Liv Hospital in Istanbul/Turkey.
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Dr. Birkent is well-known by his works on voice disorders, and gender-affirming voice surgeries. He had recently described a new surgical technique for voice feminization which is called as “Tensioning Glottoplasty”. He has participated in many otolaryngologic events as speaker and/or moderator all over the world. Dr.Birkent has over 60 papers published and indexed in the medical literature. He is the President of Voice, Speech and Swallowing Association in Turkiye. He is a founding member of the International Association of Trans Voice Surgeons, and member of the European Laryngological Society, and the Union of the Europian Phoniatricians.
