International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

Following the recent announcement that it had appointed Professor David Taylor as Project Director of the organisation's initiative on “Improving maternal and newborn health in low-resource countries through strengthening the role of obstetric and gynaecological national associations” - which is funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - FIGO is also now pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Patrick Delorme as Project Manager for the initiative.

Dr Delorme obtained his medical degree at ‘Universite d’Etat d’Haiti’ in 1993. After that, he did two Masters degrees. The first was in Public Health centred on Family Health at Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium in 1997. His final dissertation was ‘An evaluation of a private family planning project in Haiti’. Recently, he did a second Masters in Community Development at the School of Integrated Health, University of Westminster, UK (2008). His final dissertation was on the phenomenon of teenage pregnancy in rural Haiti.  Dr Delorme believes that his Masters studies have given him a taste for research. His focus area is mainly Maternal and Child Health, Young People’s Reproductive Health and Community Development in relation to the health sector.  

Dr Delorme has more than ten years of professional experience in public health. He has worked in a broad range of technical areas such as, community health, primary health care, family planning, reproductive health, maternal and child health, immunization, social marketing, health care planning and management. In Haiti, Dr Delorme worked at senior management level with major national and international organisations including Initiative Development (French NGO) and Population Service International (PSI) where he was respectively in charge of community health programs and Maternal and Child Health Project Manager. He also had the opportunity to work with the Minister of Health as  Deputy Director of a Health District (1999/2000) and then as National Director of the Immunization Program from 2001- 2004. In his last position he served as Maternal and Child Health Program Manager at UNICEF (2005/2008). During this period he collaborated with many partners and funding agencies such as WHO, UNFPA, USAID, JICA, IDB, World Bank, and CIDA      

Dr Delorme’s contribution to the elimination of measles in Haiti and his ongoing determination to increase the involvement of the community in the fight against maternal and infant mortality are some of the key achievements of his professional career. 

Dr Delorme has had the opportunity to visit more than 10 other low-resource countries - mostly in Latin America - in order to learn and share experiences in relation to best practices in public health. He is bilingual, speaking French and English.   

He took up his duties at the FIGO Secretariat on 27th April 2009.