Medical Informatics Education & Research in Greece

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: This paper aims to present an overview of the medical informatics landscape in Greece, to describe the Greek ehealth background and to highlight the main education and research axes in medical informatics, along with activities, achievements and pitfalls. METHODS: With respect to research and education, formal and informal sources were investigated and information was collected and presented in a qualitative manner, including also quantitative indicators when possible. RESULTS: Greece has adopted and applied medical informatics education in various ways, including undergraduate courses in health sciences schools as well as multidisciplinary postgraduate courses. There is a continuous research effort, and large participation in EU-wide initiatives, in all the spectrum of medical informatics research, with notable scientific contributions, although technology maturation is not without barriers. Wide-scale deployment of eHealth is anticipated in the healthcare system in the near future. While ePrescription deployment has been an important step, ICT for integrated care and telehealth have a lot of room for further deployment. CONCLUSIONS: Greece is a valuable contributor in the European medical informatics arena, and has the potential to offer more as long as the barriers of research and innovation fragmentation are addressed and alleviated.