Anne Tursz is French and studied medicine at the University of Paris V. She is a paediatrician and epidemiologist and has a degree in health economics. Her entire career has been devoted to public health, especially child and adolescent health. Her research activities have been directed in particular to the study of the utilisation of health and protective services for children in France and in several developing countries.

For the past 20 years she has carried out epidemiological research on injuries. In 1981–82 she carried out the first population based French study on accidental injuries in childhood, with the double objective of measuring the magnitude of the problem and of evaluating the feasibility of an accident surveillance system. As a result of this work, she represented France on the expert European Committee that developed EH-LASS (European Home and Leisure Accident Surveillance System). At the same time she was, and continues to be, an expert for WHO on the prevention of injuries.

At INSERM (National Institute for Health and Medical Research), where she is Director of Research, she has worked in particular on sports injuries and on the sequelae of childhood injuries. She has published numerous articles, books and book chapters, in French and in English, on several themes, including the epidemiology of injuries during childhood and adolescence, the critical analysis of routine statistics (data from vital statistics and surveillance systems), the prevention of injuries, and adolescent risk behaviours. Her most recent work reviews the organisation and evaluation of the prevention of childhood injuries in France. She has organised several seminars and colloquiums and taught numerous courses in France as well as in developing countries.

At the request of the General Direction of Social Action, she is presently coordinating a study on the long term consequences of child abuse, with a particular interest in identifying pathological conditions linked to unrecognised abuse, and the identification and reliability of relevant sources of information. Specifically, this project includes an analysis of diagnoses of the causes of death among children aged under 1 year and their possible misclassification.