Kirsten Utheim Toverud (10 January 1890 – 12 July 1949) was a Norwegian

pediatrician Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

Personal life

Toverud was born on 10 January 1890 in

Veblungsnes Veblungsnes is a village located in Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The village lies along Romsdal Fjord just across the mouth of the Rauma River from the town of Åndalsnes. The European route E136 highway runs through the ...

, to businessman Bergsvein Utheim and Anette Toenberg, and was a sister of

Trygve Utheim Trygve Utheim (16 September 1884 – 15 June 1952) was a Norwegian jurist and politician for the Liberal Party. He was the Norwegian Minister of Social Affairs from 1933 to 1935.cand.med. Candidate of Medicine ( la, candidatus medicinae (male), ''candidata medicinae'' (female), abbreviated cand. med.) is an academic degree awarded in Denmark, Iceland, and Norway following a six-year medical school education. Medical students in ...

in 1916, and

dr.med. Doctor Medicinae, also spelled Doctor Medicinæ and abbreviated Dr. Med., is a higher doctoral degree (a research doctorate) in medicine awarded by universities in Denmark and formerly in Norway. It is officially translated as Doctor of Medical S ...

in 1923, the third woman in Norway to graduate with a doctor degree in medicine. Her research focused on children's diseases, in particular nutritional disturbances. She was engaged in

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

and social medicine. On her initiative,

Norwegian Women's Public Health Association The Norwegian Women's Public Health Association (''Norske Kvinners Sanitetsforening'') or NKS is the largest women's organisation and one of the leading humanitarian organisations of Norway. It is open to women and men and was founded on the i ...

opened a station for guiding pregnant women in 1925, the first such in Norway. She chaired the

Norwegian Society of Pediatricians The Norwegian Society of Pediatricians ( no, Norsk barnelegeforening) is the Norwegian association of pediatricians. The society was founded in 1919 by Axel Johannessen, the first professor of pediatrics in Norway. The society was originally named ...

from 1934 to 1936.

References

1890 births 1949 deaths People from Rauma, Norway 20th-century Norwegian physicians Norwegian pediatricians Norwegian expatriates in the United States {{Norway-med-bio-stub