Dr. Yildirim Toruner’s mission as a pediatric rheumatologist is to improve outcomes of care of children with rheumatic diseases and raise awareness about juvenile arthritis, lupus and other rare rheumatic diseases through better education of patients and families as well as other medical professionals. She strongly supports and practices shared decision-making strategies while taking care of her patients: each patient and family’s preferences for disease management, medication and treatment choices need to be addressed along with most recent scientific developments.

Dr. Yildirim Toruner’s research interest is in quality improvement (QI) methods and patient-reported outcomes (PRO) measure development, validation, and implementation in clinical care. She is involved in multiple QI projects locally and nationally. She serves as the site Principle Investigator for the Pediatric Rheumatology Care and Outcomes Improvement Network (https://PR-COIN.org). This multi-hospital learning network brings together care teams with parents and patients, employing QI science to improve the outcomes of care of children with rheumatic disease.

Dr. Yildirim Toruner is the current chair of the Implementation Science workgroup within Childhood Arthritis and Research Alliance (CARRA). Implementation Science is the scientific study of methods that promote the systematic uptake of research findings and other evidence-based practices into routine practice to improve the quality and effectiveness of health services. Integration of QI and Implementation approaches can support improved health outcomes and continuous learning.

She is currently involved in CARRA as a group leader for CTP development in treatment of refractory Kawasaki Disease. She was previously involved in CTP development for treatment of lupus nephritis as well as treatment of PFAPA (periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis and adenitis syndrome). She is working on implementation of CARRA CTPs by using implementation science methods.