Arvo Henrik Ylppö (27 October 1887 – 28 January 1992) was a Finnish physician and professor of

pediatrics Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, Adolescence, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many o ...

who significantly decreased Finnish

infant mortality Infant mortality is the death of an infant before the infant's first birthday. The occurrence of infant mortality in a population can be described by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the number of deaths of infants under one year of age ...

during the 20th century. He is credited as the father of Finland's public maternity and child health clinic system established in 1922 (), which focuses on monitoring the health and development of newborn and pre-school children and their families, providing parents with childcare guidance and supporting child-parent interaction. For forty years, Ylppö held the title of archiater (''arkkiatri''), the highest honorary title awarded to a physician. Internationally, he was known for his research on premature infants. Ylppö was born in 1887 in Akaa,

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

into a farming family. He was apparently born premature and remained small in stature through his life. He entered the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

in 1906 and decided to specialize in pediatric medicine. In 1912, he moved to the Imperial Children's Hospital in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Germany, where he wrote his thesis about infants'

bilirubin Bilirubin (BR) (adopted from German, originally bili—bile—plus ruber—red—from Latin) is a red-orange compound that occurs in the normcomponent of the straw-yellow color in urine. Another breakdown product, stercobilin, causes the brown ...

metabolism in 1913. It was printed in Germany. He graduated as a medical doctor in March 1914 in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

. While in Germany, Ylppö concentrated on research about children's pathological anatomy and attracted international recognition. In his research, he observed that deaths of prematurely born infants are usually due to treatable conditions rather than simple underdevelopment, which motivated advancement of treatment of and science related to prematurely born infants. After returning to Finland in 1920, he became a teacher at Helsinki University Hospital. In 1922, he established an advice centre for the care of young children in the Children's Castle (''Lastenlinna'') hospital, which is considered to be the beginning of child health clinics in Finland. In 1925, he became professor of pediatrics. Ylppö continued his research, wrote extensively to medical journals about child care. He supported efforts to expand Finnish nurse training, Finnish pharmacy industry, and public awareness about medical matters. He retired as a professor in 1957 but still sponsored many childcare initiatives. From 1920 to 1963, he was chief physician at the Children's Castle hospital. He also had a private practice in Helsinki. Arvo Ylppö died in January 1992 at the age of 104. He is buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ylppo, Arvo 1887 births 1992 deaths People from Akaa Finnish scientists Finnish men centenarians Finnish pediatricians Burials at Hietaniemi Cemetery 20th-century Finnish physicians

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