Research Assocciates

 Elena Petelos

 

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Tel:  +30 2810 394621, +44 1865 600 007, +31 68 22 354 33

Elena Petelos is a public health specialist, with an educational
background in Medicine, Molecular Biology, and Molecular Oncology
(Queen Mary, UoL and King’s College London, UoL). She re-trained
mid-career in health economics, policy and governance (Maastricht
University), and in Translational Research and Comparative
Effectiveness Research (University of Washington), and Evidence-Based
Medicine (University of Oxford), becoming a Fellow in Governance and
Policy Analysis (United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and
Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology). The focus of
her work was the effect of regulatory mechanisms and HTA on technology
uptake and knowledge transfer, particularly in the context of
innovation adoption and diffusion, and with emphasis on Diagnostics
(Dx). She has worked in R&D roles in Medtronic Inc and Merck KGaA,
including as a global submission lead to the EMA and FDA, also being
the group representative (Merck KGaA – EMD Serono) in the Transparency
& Disclosure Stream of TransCelerate Biopharma Inc. She transitioned
fully to academia at the end of 2016; she has been a Research
Associate of CSFM of the UoC since 2007, and a Senior
Research Fellow for Public Health / Lecturer for Evidence-Based Medicine and
Evidence-Informed Policy, with teaching and research
responsibilities since 2016. She is a member of the HTA Network Pool
of Experts of the
European Commission representing the European Forum of Primary Care,
and a delegated expert for the European Medicines Agency (Scientific
Advice, HTA, Biosimilars, and Vaccines). She was elected as a Member
of the Advisory Board in 2019. She is an expert for outcomes and
molecular diagnostics for the European Commission (COSME-EASME,
Innovative Medicine Initiative, and multiple public health
instruments) and for the Medical Research Council (MRC) of the UKRI,
the national funding agency of the United Kingdom. She is also a
member of the Steering Group of the European Health Information
Initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2017, elected
as Chair of the Subgroup of EU, OECD, WHO - EHII on Mapping indicators
across the European region, and the Vice-Chair of the Sub-group on
Evidence-Informed Policy. She is a member of the Governing Board of
the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) since 2017, where she
also serves as a member of the Core Committee of the Infectious
Diseases Control Section and a Member of the Steering Committee of the
HTA Section. She is the elected Co-Chair of the RICC SIG of HTAi since
2019, also serving as a Member of the Scientific Development and
Capacity-Building Committee.

 

Agapi Angelaki, MPH

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Tel:  +302810394718

Agapi Angelaki is a graduate of the Department of Social Work, School of Health andWelfare ATEI and holds the license to practice social work,  Decision No: 3301/3-8-2007, Published FEK, issue B, 1695 / 08/23/2007. She is also, a graduate M.Sc. (MPH) in Public Health and Health Services Administration with specialization in Epidemiology, Graduate Program, Public Health & Health Services Administration (2013), Department of Medicine, University of Crete. Since March 2011 and up until today, is a Fellow Scientific Research in Clinical Social Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete. She is experienced in undertaking the development of the following projects: the administrative tasks, the custody of deliverables, preparation for data collection, training for conducting interviews with GPs and practice of software for conducting interviews, and making interviews with GPs in the randomized trial of the European program "TRANSFoRm 247787, Translational Research and Patient Safety in Europe". She is also was involved in “Qualicopc - Evaluating costs and quality of primary care in Europe”, an EC funded project - FP7 (September 2012) specifically, in the preparation for data collection, training for conducting interviews prior to the project. Further, she is involved with the “EU WISE Project FP7 - Selfcare for LongTerm Conditions in Europe” (October of 2012 - until today): in the administrative tasks, the custody of deliverables (WP6), preparation for data collection, training and  conducting interviews with patients and prior stakeholders during the cross – sectional study (January 2013 – December 2013). Also, she holds a National Certificate of English Language, C1 and a Degree ECDL Core.

 

Myron Galenianos, BSc (Hons), MSc

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Tel:  +302810394590

is an Economist and since 2011, is responsible for the Financial Management of all the Research programmes of the Clinic of Social and Family Medicine of the University of Crete. These include European FP7 Research Projects, National Strategic Reference Framework (ESPA) 2007–2013 programmes and private funding programmes. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Business Economics from Plymouth University, UK (2000) and an MSc in Financial Services Management from the University of Surrey, UK (2001). Furthermore, since 2011 he has been an instructor on the subject of "Budget design and planning for research proposals" and also a member of the Economic Chamber of Greece since 2007

 

Antonios Bertsias

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Tel:  +302810394613

Antonios Bertsias received his BSc degree from the Department of Physics, University of Crete, Greece in 2005. Since 2009 he is a research associate at the Clinic of Social and Family Medicine, School of Medicine University of Crete working on several research projects. The main focus of his work is data entry & management and statistical analysis. He speaks fluent Greek, English and Italian.

 

 

 

Ms. Dimitra Sifaki-Pistolla,  GISexpert, MPH, PhD(c)

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Tel:  +30 2810-394613

 

Ms. Sifaki-Pistolla is a Geographer – GIS Analyst and has graduated from the Faculty of Geography of he University of the Aegean (UOA) in 2010. She earned her Master degree in  in Public Health and Healthcare Management specialized in Epidemiology, in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete (UoC). She is currently a PhD Student in Cancer Epidemiology in the UoC.  
Her working experience started in 2005, as a summer practice employee of the UOA in several positions and institutes such as in the National Organization of Tourism in Heraklion, Crete (as a GIS expert), in a cadastral studies private office in Lesvos (as a GIS and AUTOCAD analyst), in the UOC, Laboratory of Clinical Bacteriology, Parasitology, Zoonoses and Geographical Medicine, under the supervision of Prof. Anna Psaroulaki (as a GIS analyst) and in the Experimental High School of Lesvos (teaching Geography through new technologies). Currently she is working at the Clinic of Social and Family Medicine as a project manager in a National Strategic Reference Framework’s project (entitled “Operational integration of PHC facilities”). She has been a research associate with the Faculty of Medicine for almost three years (since 2011) [Department of Social Medicine, Laboratory of Clinical Bacteriology as a GIS expert in the EDENext Biology project for the region of Greece] as well as with several professors in the University Hospital of Heraklion, Crete [Gastroenterology Clinic, Pulmonary and Oncology Clinic]. She had 10 teaching hours in the Master of Public health and Health care Administration of the UOC, for two lectures (GIS in Epidemiology and preparation of final exercises of Epidemiology II) as a part of the Epidemiology subject under the supervision of Prof. Nikolaos Tzanakis.

Her activity in scientific writing and research has started since 2010. She deals with methodology issues in the health area, expertise in spatio-temporal analysis and dynamic prediction models, using several softwares such as Matlab, Stata, SPSS, R, ERDAS, GIS (Arc map, GeoDa, STEM and other). Also, she holds a Cambridge Certificate of English Language (PCL; C2), a Degree of ECDL Core and several certificated of distant learning courses (related to Public health, Epidemiology, Spatial analysis in Epidemiology, Prevention, Primary health Care, Tobacco Control, Biostatistics and Mathematics) from the Universities of California- Irvine, Harvard School, J.Hopkins- Bloomberg and Berkeley. Finally, she is currently working with Dr.G.Pistolla on their next book which will be a handbook of GIS applications in epidemiology.

 

Constantine Vardavas, MD, RN, MPH, PhD, FCCP 

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Constantine Vardavas, MD, RN, MPH, PhD, FCCP was a Senior Research Scientist of the Harvard School of Public Health, the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, before returning to Europe to spearhead tobacco control initiatives. He is senior author of over 170 research articles and participates in numerous research projects and committees in Europe and America on the subject of public health and health promotion.His research and educational activities mainly focus on health behaviors (such as smoking, alcohol, diet, physical exercise) and how society can contribute to personal changes. Particular emphasis gives the teaching practice of public health applications (public health practice), prevention and health promotion, and research methodology. His scientific publications and reports exceed the number of 220 (2300+ citations, 25 h-index, 800+ Total impact factor or 4.4 average impact factor). Moreover, he has presented his research and provided policy consultation in more than 80 international conferences, research institutes, academic institutions, the European Commission and in multiple times within the European Parliament. He is also current co Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Tobacco Induced Diseases, one of the three ISI indexed tobacco specific journals.
Mr Vardavas is Principal Investigator or Co-Manager in many research programs such as EUREST-PLUS (EU Horizon2020-HCO-2015), TACK-SHS (EU Horizon2020-HCO-2015. WP leader), TOB-G (EU 3rd Health programme: HP-PJ-2014), DIRECT (European Commission: EAHC / 2015 / Health / 02), PRECISE (European Commission: EAHC / 2013 / Health / 23), EUREST (European Commission: EAHC / 2013 / Health / 28), TITAN (Pfizer Independent Grant for learning & Change), EPACTT (Pfizer Independent Grant for learning & Change) and has Research Positions in 19 research projects (US-NIH, US-NCI, EU-FP6, EU-FP7, ESPA, Horizon2020).  For further information you can visit his site:  http://www.tobcontrol.eu/ 

 

 

Dr.Sophia Papadakis,PhD,MHA

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Dr. Sophia Papadakis is a Scientist with the Division of Prevention and Rehabilitation at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Papadakis is currently a Visiting Scientist in theClinic of Social and Family Medicine at the University of Crete. Sophia is a tobacco treatment specialist and has been involved in the design of several highly successful continuing medical education programs in tobacco control. Dr. Papadakis’ work has been focused on ensuring tobacco treatment training is tailored to the realities of busy primary care clinicians. Prior to joining the team at the University of Crete, Dr. Papadakis is the Program Director for the Primary Care Smoking Cessation Program at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. She has led the development of a network of 80 family health teams in the province of Ontario who are partnered in theOttawa Model for Smoking Cessation.

 

Eirini Vasilaki

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Tel:  +30 2810 394594

Eirini Vasilaki graduated from the Department of Economics, University of Thessaly in 2009. Her working experience has to do with accounting services and secretariat to various companies. Since March 2011 she has been working to the research projects of the Clinic of Social and Family Medicine at University of Crete having management of research programs under the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) as well as clinical studies. She speaks fluent English and German.

 

 

 

Chrisanthi Psaroudaki 

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Tel:  +30 2810 394621 

Chrisanthi Psaroudaki (B.Sc. in Economics) has been providing administrative and financial support for all research projects and programmes to the Clinic of Social and Family Medicine since 2007.

 

 

 

  

Vasiliki-Eirini Chatzea, MPH

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Tel:  +30 2810-394613

Vasiliki–Eirini Chatzea graduated from the Department of Health and Welfare Management, Technological Educational Institute of Athens. Ms Chatzea also holds a master degree in Public Health and Health Care Management specialized in Epidemiology from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete and a Specialty Training Certificate in Public Health and Food Microbiology from the National and Capodestrian University of Athens. She speaks fluently English, Spanish and German and is a European Computer Driving License Core Certificate holder. Furthermore, Ms Chatzea has participated in various Youth in Action programs in many European countries and is a member of the Mensa society. Since 2012 she has been working at the Clinic of Social and Family Medicine as administrative assistant and fellow researcher in the field of Primary Health Care.

  

Mr. Enkeleint-Aggelos Mechili, MSc, PhD

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Tel:  +302810 394931 

Mr. Enkeleint-Aggelos Mechili, MSc, PhD is a graduate of the Department of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and holds a MSc in Public Health and since 2015 a Phd in Health Policy from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. His research focuses on Public Health, Health Policy, Health Economics and Epidemiology. He has a huge experience in Teaching Epidemiology and Research Methodology at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens at under and post graduate level. Mr Mechili has more than 20 publications in international and Greek journals. In 2013 he worked at BioMed program in Jordan.

 

 

Marilena Anastasaki, MSc 

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Tel: +30 2810 394614 

Marilena Anastasaki graduated from the Department of Mathematics of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 2012. She holds a Master degree in Biostatistics from the Medical School and the Department of Mathematics of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Department of Mathematics of the University of Ioannina. She has working experience at the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands where she dealt with the mathematical modelling of infectious diseases’ transmission. In the Clinic of Social and Family Medicine of the University of Crete she is involved in the management of European (Horizon 2020) and national funded research projects, focusing on Primary Health Care.  She speaks English, German and Italian. 

 

 

Charis Girvalaki, Chem, MPH, PhD(c)

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Tel: +30 2810 394614 
 

Ms Girvalaki graduated from Chemistry Department, University of Crete, Greece. She holds a Master degree in Public Health and Healthcare Management specialized in Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, University of Crete and she is currently a PhD Student and a researc h associate of the Clinic of Social and Family Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Crete.  Ms Girvalaki’s doctoral research will examine the use of the theory of planned behavior in understanding outcomes related to the Tobacco treatment TrAining Network in Crete (TiTAN Crete) intervention program among primary care physicians.

Ms Girvalaki has been involved in many scientific projects: PROTECT. Advertising and promotion of tobacco products around schools in Crete (2012), EUREST (The development of an EU common reporting format for submission of data on ingredients contained in tobacco and related products and disclosure of the collected data to the public): European Commission: EAHC / 2013 / Health / 28. (2014-2015), TITAN Crete (Tobacco treatment TrAining Network in Crete): Pfizer Independent Grant for learning & Change (2015-2016), PRECISE (The provision of a study on the identification of potential risks to public health associated with the use of refillable electronic cigarettes and development of technical specifications for refill mechanisms) : European Commission: EAHC / 2013 / Health / 23 (2015-2016), DIRECT (Database of industry research on the adductive and carcinogenic addictives in tobacco) where she spent 10 weeks working in Directorate General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission, Brussels, Belgium. European Commission: EAHC / 2015 / Health / 02 (2015-2016). She is currently working on EUREST-PLUS EU Horizon2020 program (European Regulatory Science on Tobacco: Policy implementation to reduce lung diseases): EU Horizon2020-HCO-2015 (2016-2019). 

Her research interests are currently focused on the fields of the development, implementation and assessment of tobacco control initiatives and exposure to smoke and smoking cessation with a special focus on vulnerable populations such as children, adolescents.

 

Georgia D. Pistolla, PhD
Mathematician, Msc, PhD in Public health
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Dr Pistolla is a mathematician with a Msc and PhD in medicine and Public health. She graduated from the Academy of nursing assistants of Venizelion Hospital (Nursing Assistant/Aide and Patient Care Assistant/Aide) in 1991 and has been working as a nurse in several clinics/departments of the University Hospital of Crete, such as the Ophthalmology clinic and the surgery department. She also earned a Bachelor degree of Science (BSc) Mathematical sciences (Honors) from the Cambridge Open University in 2000. She then obtained a Master and PhD degree at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete. She had also worked as a Professor in the Private educational centers in Crete, from 2008 to 2009 (Subjects taught: Biostatistics I, Biostatistics II and Geographical Information Systems).
In addition, Dr Pistolla had conducted the statistical/mathematical analysis in several projects or thesis as an assistant or external partner or advisor. She currently works in the University hospital and has a long research activity in the health area. She collaborates with several institutions and focuses on the methodology in epidemiology and public health. Finally, she recently wrote a book named “Geo-maths in medicine” and she is currently working with D.Sifaki-Pistolla on their next book which will be a handbook of GIS applications in epidemiology.
Dr. Pistolla’s expertise in mathematical analysis in health data, spatio-temporal predictions, time-series models and analysis of chaotic phenomena, using several mathematical, statistical, geographical softwares such as Matlab, Stata, SPSS, R, ERDAS, GIS (Arc map, GeoDa, STEM and other). She has developed a mathematical theory and algorithm of identifying the nature of data in space, with several applications in the health area. She also has several certificates of distant learning courses (related to Epidemiology, Tobacco Control, Biostatistics, Mathematics and Dynamic modeling) from the Universities of Harvard School, J.Hopkins- Bloomberg and Berkeley.