By Demetrios Rhompotis

Dr. George Tsioulias, President of HMS, went to Athens at the invitation of Greece’s Health Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos, following the latter’s visit in New York last May where he was presented with the first ever Grand Papanicolaou Award at the annual Dr. George N. Papanicolaou Symposium, organized by the HMS and the Panevoikos Society of New York at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

“It is a great privilege to be included in KESY,” wrote Dr. Tsioulias from Athens, during an electronic interview with NEO. “It signifies the importance and recognition that the Hellenic Medical Society of New York has acquired,” while at the same time it offers motherland the opportunity “to potentially tap on their (HMS members) diverse experience and innovative views to improve public health care in Greece.” As Minister Avramopoulos pointed out in his speech at the annual Papanicolaou Symposium in New York, named after the “father of cytology”, “health finds no national borders.”

Executive Vice Dean and Senior Vice Dean of Clinical Affairs at Cornell Medical College, Dr. Darracott Vaughan, Mayor of Kymi, Greece, where Papanicolaou was born, Mr. Dimitrios Thomas, the President of the Panevoikos Society of America, Mr. Vassilios Chaimanis, the President of the Hellenic Society of Clinical Cytology, Dr. Hara Margari, the Director of Cytopathology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Dr. Maria Nasioutziki, the Chairman of the World Psychiatric Association Standing Committee on Ethics, Professor George Christodoulou, and the President of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, Mr. Dimitrios Kalamaras, joined key note speaker Minister Avramopoulos in addressing the audience at this year’s Symposium.

A biography of the great scientist, translated into English by Dr. Anthony Vasilas, was distributed to participants, as the Symposium’s aim, besides exchanging experience and scientific knowledge, is to maintain and promote Papanicolaou’s legacy within the medical community.

The Hellenic Medical Society of New York (HMS) itself has its origins in the Greek-American Medical Fraternity, an organization co-founded by Dr. George N. Papanicolaou during the First World War. This organization officially registered with the New York State authorities in 1920. Drs. George N. Papanicolaou, Nicholas Papadopoulos, Constantinos Carousos and Constantinos Logothetis served consecutively as presidents of the fraternity.

Since its inception, HMS has made great strides in unifying the Greek-American physicians in the New York metropolitan area and neighboring states, and in accomplishing its community goals. A medical student exchange program between the United States and Greece has been reinstituted for elective clinical clerkships.

In 1997, trees brought from the island of Kos by Dr. Vasilas, were planted at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital of Cornell University in honor of George Papanicolaou. Another donation, arranged by Dr. Kartopoulou, was given at the Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine in New Jersey supporting the large statue of Hippocrates.

Early in 1999, the G.N. Papanicolaou Endowed Scholarship was reestablished at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, which is considered to be the only scholarship commemorating the creator of the "Pap Test" at a medical school in the United States. The Society is actively campaigning to increase the existing and to establish new named scholarships. In 2000-2001, yearly lectures have been instituted in memory of Dr. Papanicolaou.

Dr. George Tsioulias, the HMS current President, was born and raised in Athens and graduated from the University of Athens Medical School. He then served two years as a medical officer in the Greek Air Force, before receiving scholarships from the Japanese Government and the European Union to conduct research in Japan, where he got a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the University of Tokyo. He was immediately invited to the US to continue medical research as a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University Medical College and Rockefeller University for three years. Since 2001 he has been a Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery at the Mount Sinai School Medicine and practicing surgical oncologist in the New York area.

Recently you took part in the Greece’s National Board of Health (KESY) meeting as for the first time the Hellenic Medical Society of New York has been invited to send a member from this year on. What was that like?

It is a great privilege to be included in KESY, the highest advisory board for public health issues in our motherland Greece. This is the first time ever that the KESY invites an organization outside Greece to participate in its board meetings.

It signifies the importance and recognition that the Hellenic Medical Society of New York (HMS) has asserted over the last few years and the interest of the Greek State, in this case through the Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity under the guidance of Dimitris Avramopoulos, to include members of the Hellenic Medical Diaspora and potentially tap on their diverse experience and innovative views to improve public health care in Greece.

Are there more projects under way between the HMS and the Hellenic Ministry of Health? What about a program for Greek and non-Greek students from the US that would take them to Greece to study Medicine - due to the high expense required in the US - instead of most of them going to Mexico or Grenada?

We are in the process of evaluating several joint projects with organizations and authorities in Greece. We are in contact with the Aegean Teams (Omades Aegaiou), a voluntary organization that specializes in improving the infrastructure and offering medical support to communities in remote isolated islands of the Aegean Sea. We are also in contact with EMKAE (Commission for the Registration and Support of the Greek Diaspora), which is another organization with a similar scope of interests but for isolated Greek populations in need outside Greece. We are in close collaboration with the municipality of Kymi, in Evia, birthplace of Dr. George Papanicolaou, in order to promote and support his namesake institute which is devoted to cancer education and early detection. We have established a program through the kind offices of our member in Greece, Dr. George Farmakides, for medical students of Greek descent who would like to spend time in Greek hospitals. Finally, arrangements are under way to expand the DIAS college student exchange program in Greece, which has been established by Dr. Nathenas to Greek American medical students with partial funding by the HMS.

At the recent Papanicolaou Symposium in New York, what would you consider the most important thing discussed or accomplished?

This year's Papanicolaou Symposium had the highest and more diverse attendance ever. Several factors may have contributed to this year's success. The main lecture on Ethics in Medicine had clearly a far reaching appeal beyond the medical community. It was widely publicized and it created a lot of interest in the media and public. The guest lecturers and the honoree, Minister Dimitrios Avramopoulos, were well known figures and seasoned speakers.

The most important things achieved were the publicity that Papanicolaou's work received, the interest it stirred among laypeople in the Greek American community and the message it conveyed about the sensitivities of the HMS regarding ethical issues in medicine.

Do you believe the Symposium should somehow be elevated to a more scientific status in order for its results to be of importance to the greater medical community, as it's been named after the inventor of the Papanicolaou test?

The Papaniclaou Symposium lectures have always been of the highest academic standards and over the years we have invited distinguished scientists whose work is directly or indirectly related to that of Dr. Papanicolaou's. There was a partial departure in this year's celebration because we presented for the first time the "Grand Papanicolaou Award" which is bestowed on individuals with significant contributions to public health or medical science.

It seems there is an effort underway to have the Medical Society in closer collaboration with other Greek-American Institutions, such as the Federation of Hellenic Societies and the Leadership 100. What's the long term perspective and are you doing the same with other American institutions?

One of my priorities is to make the HMS more diverse in its activities, more involved in joint projects with other organizations of the Greek American community. It is important for our people to feel that their doctors are always close to them and not only for medical matters. The long term goal is to lead by example, get more people involved in public affairs, and develop strong ties and close collaboration with other Greek or American organizations.

What are the priorities of your presidency, after you tenure will be completed, what things you would like to see accomplished or in a process of being developed?

The priorities of my presidency are to make HMS a more extrovert organization, strengthen the ties of our Society with Greece, lobby for our members’ right to practice quality medicine with dignity and attract more actively participating members especially among the younger generation of Greek American doctors.