Curriculum vitae
Maria Bakola (MD, MPH) is a General Practitioner/Family Physician working in the National Health System in a rural area of Ioannina, Greece. She was born in Germany, studied medicine at the Medical Faculty of Novi Sad, Serbia and completed her Family Medicine residency at the General Hospital of Ioannina, Greece. She was trained in the art of the pre-hospital management of patients at the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) base in Thessaloniki-Greece, in Ultrasound at the University Hospital of Ioannina (UHI), as well as on critical aspects of emergency medicine in New York, USA (fellowship grant by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation). Also, she was trained in smoking cessation at the smoking cessation center of Evaggelismos Hospital, Athens.
She is also a member of major international and national professional bodies and associations, such as the Administrative Scientific Committee on Adult Mental Health of Ioannina-Thesprotia-Corfu in Greece, EGPRN (European General Practice Research Network), EQuiP (European Society for Quality and Safety in Family Practice), EURACT (European Academy of Teachers in General Practice/Family Medicine), International Balint Federation (IBF) and World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) Working Party on Mental Health (WWPMH).
Since 2015 she attends an online Balint group with international participants conducted in partnership between the IBF and WONCA regional Young Doctors Movements (YDMs).
Apart from her major research interests in the area of chronic diseases and research on mental health issues, she is also interested in e-health, mobile health, telemedicine, knowledge translation, as well as international collaboration for the improvement of primary health, public health and global health through the implementation of new initiatives.