Movers & Shakers
Meet Konstantinos Makrilakis, new IDF Europe Board Member from Greece
- Details
- Published on Friday, 18 December 2015 08:26
Dr. Konstantinos Makrilakis is Associate Professor in Internal Medicine, at the first Department of Propaedeutic Medicine and the Diabetes Center, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, Laiko General Hospital, Athens, Greece.
Dr. Makrilakis graduated from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School (1988), and after completing his PhD at the same University (1992), he did his Residency in Internal Medicine (1993-1996) and Fellowships in Advanced Internal Medicine/Hypertension (1996-1997) and General Internal Medicine (1997-1998), in Chicago, USA. He also completed a “Master’s degree in Public Health” (MPH) in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, at the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA (1999) and is currently finishing Postgraduate Studies in “Health Units Administration” from the Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece.
He is presently working as a clinical doctor, researcher and educator at the Laiko University Hospital, in Athens, Greece. The Diabetes Outpatient Department and the Diabetes Foot Clinic of the Center is one of the biggest in Greece, having produced an “Atlas of the Diabetic Foot” (Wiley Publications) well recognized in the international medical community. His research interest is mainly focused on epidemiology and prevention of diabetes and has participated in European Commission-sponsored studies for the prevention of diabetes.
He is a Board member of the Hellenic Diabetes Association and the Hellenic Association of Lipidiology, Atherosclerosis and Vascular Disease.
Being an Internist in his main specialization, Dr. Makrilakis has seen that diabetes is a very complex disease, affecting all aspects of human life and health, both physically and psychologically. People with diabetes need a lot of support from friends, relatives, physicians, other health care professionals and the community alike.
Dr. Makrilakis’s time is equally devoted in clinical duties, teaching and research. Having realized the huge burden of the disease in the society, he is a strong proponent of prevention efforts in the society and at individual levels and has participated in numerous European-wide protocols for the prevention of the disease in the community (DEPLAN, Manage Care, Feel4Diabetes, ePredice, Image), where a strong alliance with many clinical European centers in >15 countries has been developed. He was co-author of the European guidelines for the prevention of diabetes, produced as part of the European Commission-sponsored “Image project” (Development and Implementation of A European Guideline “Diabetes Preventions” and of a Curriculum for prevention managers including the establishment of quality control standards and an E-Health Training Program).
Dr. Makrilakis believes that teaching not only physicians/students, but also patients, their relatives and society in general about the merits of prevention, will have a much better impact on controlling the epidemic of diabetes. He believes that IDF is one of the leading organizations which can greatly help reaching this goal. Being a member of IDF Europe’s Board of Directors will give him the opportunity to serve these goals in a much more productive and far-reaching way. His affiliations with other stakeholders in the field - both in Greece and internationally- will hopefully serve this purpose.
Dr. Makrilakis sees IDF Europe playing a more active role in advocating diabetes prevention in all European countries, talking to and cooperating with Governments, media and lay people interested in diabetes to increase awareness of the burden of the disease, and putting more focus on lifestyle improvement towards a healthier way of life.