Ilias Iakovidis

Adviser of European Commission (BE)

Ilias Iakovidis

Adviser of European Commission (BE)
linkedin-icontwitter-icon

Biography

Ilias Iakovidis, PhD, is currently an Adviser on Societal challenges at the European Commission, DG CONNECT. Before that he was leading and managing eHealth and ICT for ageing units of the European Commission (EC).

Ilias has worked on the EU Agenda for eHealth and ICT for ageing over more than 20 years. He led the development of the Research Framework Programmes of EC (FP4-7, H2020) as well Innovation programmes (CIP, CEF) that had a combined budget ~100Mil.€/year. Some of the areas that Ilias pioneered include Integrated Care that fosters stronger cooperation between health and social care systems; Multi-scale modeling and simulation (Virtual Physiological Human) that brings together developments in medical- , bio- and neuro – informatics; Personal Health Systems that develop portable and wearable heath systems through cross-disciplinary cooperation (biomedical engineering, health informatics, micro/nano-technologies).

Ilias was also instrumental in setting up and managing the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Active and Healthy Ageing. He was a main co-author of the first eHealth Action Plan for Europe (COM 2004 356), and Communication on telemedicine (COM(2008)689). He coordinate the international cooperation with non EU countries. In particular, he has managed the development of the EU-US Memorandum of Understanding in eHealth.

Ilias has a PhD in Applied Mathematics in Medicine (USA) and postdoctoral training in biomedical engineering (Canada). He continues to publish, give lectures at major international conferences, seminars and universities. In 2001 he has been elected fellow of American College of Medical Informatics for his contribution to the field.

PRESENTATION 2017

Tackling societal challenges through digital transformation
Europe is experiencing a storm of crises and societal challenges such as environmental, climate, demographic, migration, sustainability of health and care systems, (cyber)security and terrorism, etc. The EU response to health and care challenges through digital transformation will be briefly presented. In particular, the shift to provide greater response-ability to people and their carers regarding management of their health status and wellness will be discussed. The possible role and impact of serious games will be explored including the possibilities for EU response in form of the support for policy, research, innovation and communication actions. A generalisation of the role of serious game to other societal challenges will be attempted.