Profile of Professor Christos Lionis

Christos Lionis was born in Rethymnon, Crete in 1955. In 1973, he entered the Medical School at University of Athens and graduated in 1979.

Experience

For 9 years, he served as the Manager and Medical Director of the Spili Health Centre, a pilot site for the University of Crete Primary Care Centre, obtaining experiences as clinician and researcher in the field of Primary Health Care and General Practice. In 1994, he was elected Assistant Professor of Social and Family Medicine at the Department of Social Medicine, University of Crete, and in 2002 he was elected Associate Professor. Since September 2001 until May 2004, Associate Professor Lionis has been appointed Deputy General Director of the Regional Health and Welfare System (Pe.S.Y.P.) of Crete, a newly developed planning and regulatory body overseeing all health and welfare services that are part of the Greek National Health System. Today, he coordinates the Primary Care Research Network in Crete, a strong cooperation among several health centres and rural practices in rural Crete and the Medical School of the University of Crete. His current activities and main areas of interest concentrate on primary health care, family medicine, quality management and performance, while he is actively involved in the formulation of Greek guidelines for management of common diseases and ill-conditions, including coronary artery disease, chronic heart failure, hypertension, diabetes, COPD, mood and cognitive disorders, dyspepsia and functional gastrointestinal disorders.

International Work

He is the Editor in Chief of the Primary Health Care Journal, edited by the Greek Association of General Practice and the Remote and Rural Health (European Section), a cited in MedLine electronic biomedical journal. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the European Journal of General Practice and the Family Practice and Quality in Primary Care. He is the Vice President of the European General Practice Research Network (EGPRN), a European Network Organisation of the European Society of General Practice/ Family Medicine (WONCA Europe), and member of the Executive Board of WONCA Europe. Christos Lionis is also taking part in the Executive Board of the European Society of Primary Care Gastroenterology/ESPCG) and the Executive Board of the European Rural and Isolated Practitioners Association (EURIPA). Since 1987, he has developed formal affiliations with British, Swedish, Dutch and Turkish Universities, taking part in multidisciplinary research and educational teams and participating in large comparative projects.

Research and Publications

He has run a European Project founded by DGV/ EC as well as several national projects, while he has joined many international and national research projects. He has published 112 original papers in international and European journals and 62 in Greek journals.