Dr. Pierre Boutros Mansourian is a medical graduate from the Universities of Cairo and Lausanne. He pursued his postgraduate training in the University of London (biomedical engineering, neurophysiology and epidemiology), before joining WHO in 1969, with the Division of Research in Epidemiology and Communication Science. A few years later, he was appointed to the Office of Science and Technology, an advisory unit to the Director General. He continued with that Office (subsequently renamed research policy coordination), becoming its Director in 1994, until retirement (1998). He published original work in a range of fields including neurophysiology, medical informatics, systems analysis (transfer function of the vestibulo-ocular control system) and epidemiology (digital filters and pattern recognition techniques in epidemiological variables).
He served as Secretary of WHO's Advisory Committee on Health Research and participated closely with that body in the formulation of research strategies and policy principles for the Organization, during the 80s and 90s. In his coordinative functions, he has been instrumental in promoting new methodologies such as remote sensing, systems modelling, and artificial intelligence in various WHO programmes. Retiring after 30 years of service with WHO, he was asked by a UNESCO-based project to preside over the development of a medical and public health encyclopedia (EOLSS). Amongst other noteworthy contributions during that period, were books on ´Understanding the Global Dimensions of Health ´ and on the History of Research in WHO .
Key publications
Black, A., Cuendet, G., & Mansourian, B.-P. (1966). Automation possibilities in ophthalmology. Communication presented to the Royal Society of Medicine, London.
Mansourian, B.-P. (1966). Simulation of neuronal discharge on a digital computer (DIC thesis). Imperial College London.
Mansourian, B.-P. (1967). Computation électronique des diagnostics dans l'automatisation de l'examen ophtalmologique (Doctoral dissertation). University of Lausanne.
Mansourian, B.-P. (1972). Systems analysis of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (M.Phil. thesis). University of London.
Mansourian, B.-P. (1973). The prospects of automation from the viewpoint of WHO. In C. Heden et al. (Eds.), Automation in microbiology and immunology (Chap. 2). John Wiley & Sons.
Mansourian, B.-P., & Phan Tan, T. (1974). Stochastic modeling of neural discharge. Computer Programs in Biomedicine, 4(2), 75–79.
Mansourian, B.-P., et al. (1975). Recording the cardiac interbeat interval distribution. Journal of Applied Physiology, 38(3), 542–545.
Mansourian, B.-P. (1976). Use of signal analysis in epidemiology (Doctoral dissertation). University of London.
Mansourian, B.-P. (1980). Introduction à l'informatique médicale. Masson.
Mansourian, B.-P., & Sayers, B. M. McA. (1980). Structural analysis in the study of infantile diarrhea and other epidemiological problems. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 58(2), 207–227.
Davies, A. M., & Mansourian, B.-P. (1992). Research strategies for health. Hogrefe & Huber on behalf of the World Health Organization.
Mansourian, B.-P. (1994). Research for health: Principles, perspectives and strategies. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 72(5), 699–705.
Gunn, S. W. A., & Mansourian, B.-P. (Eds.). (2005). Understanding the global dimensions of health. Springer.
Mansourian, B.-P. (2007). Global perspectives in health. In Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS). UNESCO.
Mansourian, B.-P. (Ed.). (2010). Research and the World Health Organization. World Health Organization.
Mansourian, B.-P. (2017). Science policies for WHO in Mahler's times. Journal of Humanitarian Medicine, 17(1).