Ilias Iakovidis, PhD

Ilias Iakovidis is a Scientific Officer of the Health Telematics Unit of the European Commission General Directorate Information Society. He received a BSc in mathematics from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a PhD magna cum laude in applied mathematics from the Texas Tech University. He is currently serving as visiting faculty at three universities in Europe, teaching post graduate classes in medical informatics. Prior to his current position, Dr. Iakovidis was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the Biomedical Engineering Institute, University of Montreal, followed by an appointment as Research Associate at the Montreal Heart Institute, McGill University. His main responsibilities in his current position include preparation of the research policies and directions of the European Union in the area of medical informatics as well as monitoring of research projects on systems for health professionals and on personal health support systems. He is actively involved in promotion of international collaboration in medical informatics, in particular between the European Union and North America. Dr. Iakovidis' primary interest has been electronic health records, user acceptance, and strategies for successful and beneficial application of health telematics systems. He has been supporting and driving research on the personal health record since 1993 and promoting the set-up of EHR centers in European countries. Particular focus has been on improving user acceptance by examining and promoting the uptake of humanñcomputer interaction issues, such as universal access and design for all. He has also been gaining experience in the applicability and benefits of health telematics systems and has been invited by several European countries to contribute to implementation strategies. His current interest is promoting research between medical informatics and bioinfomatics and the effects on the personal health record. Dr. Iakovidis has received honors from Hellenic Professional Society of Texas. He is member of the editorial boards of IEEE-Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine and the IOS Press series Health Technology and Informatics. He has been an invited keynote speaker at major international events (e.g., MedInfo 98, MIE 97, MIE 99) and lecturer at seminars and courses at European and U.S. universities, including the Short Course at Stanford University. He has initiated and chaired a series of conferences on user acceptance and has participated in the committees of conferences organized by the European Federation for Medical Informatics, IEEE, and the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics. He is a founding member of the international scientific forum Information Society for All.