Medical Education Innovation & Research Unit (MEIRU)

One of the key missions of the Special Unit for Biomedical Research and Education is high-quality healthcare education and training. Its establishment was deemed necessary to become the bridge for cooperation and interaction between the School of Medicine and scientific teams of other Departments within and outside the University, with related research interests, as well as bodies and / or companies active in the field of biomedical research and innovation, digital health and medical education and innovative approaches in training, and the provision of related quality health services in general.

The “Medical Education Innovation & Research Unit” (MEIRU) aims at becoming a champion in attracting funding and high-quality research production in healthcare technology education, aligned with contemporary developments in the field of digital health and the associated requirement for digital skill sets and inter/multi professional training and Vocational Education Training (VET).

Patient-centred communication skills and soft skills in general.
Development and exploitation of scenario/problem/case-based learning approaches and virtual patient environments.
Immersive technologies in medical teaching and learning – Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) and Mixed Reality (MR).
Development of digital/virtual content for medical games and gamified experiences for learning in the fields of Healthcare, Health Education.
The use of innovative pedagogical and experiential approaches like Escape rooms in medical education and inter-professional education.
Co-creation and living lab approaches in medical and healthcare training.

MEIRU has already played a major role in the recent accreditation of SUBRE as a Multispecialty Format Centre Level by the Network of Accredited Clinical Skills Centres in Europe (NASCE) and European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) (the oldest medical organisation in Europe). This achievement provides all the credits needed for a sustained development of innovation in education and training and expanded outreach to and interchange/interaction with many other accredited centres of NASCE/UEMS.

MEIRU contributes substantially to the added value of the innovation zone of the School of Medicine and of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, as well as, to the city of Thessaloniki, Northern Greece, and the Eastern European and Mediterranean Regions in general.

MEIRU is led by Prof. Panagiotis Bamidis (Professor of Medical Physics and Informatics in Medical Education at AUTH). To be placed under the auspices of S.U.B.R.E. and to be able to indicate their affiliation to MEIRU, interested AUTH School of Medicine staff as well as other University parties and studies may be submitted to a Prof. Asterios Karagiannis (Executive Director of SUBRE) and Prof. Panagiotis Bamidis (Head of MEIRU, S.U.B.R.E.).

Publications

Elif Iliria Emin, Ece Emin, Alexios Bimpis, Michael Pierides, Aikaterini Dedeilia, Zibad Javed, Kathrine-Sofia Rallis, Ferha Saeed, Georgios Theophilou, Apostolos Karkanevatos, Dilek Kitapcioglu, Mehmet Emin Aksoy, Apostolos Papalois, Michail Sideris, Teaching and Assessment of Medical Students During Complex Multifactorial Team-Based Tasks: The “Virtual on Call” Case Study
Saant Al Mogrampi, Christina Boumpoureka, Hara Afaloniati, Maria Lagou, Katerina Angelopoulou, Doxakis Anestakis, Zoi Gerasimina Tampouratzi, Stavros Iliadis, Nikolaos Antoniadis, Alexandros Giakoustidis, Apostolos Papalois, Vasileios Papadopoulos, Theofilos Poutahidis, Dimitrios Giakoustidis – Inhibition of γδ-TcR or IL17a Reduces T-Cell and Neutrophil Infiltration after Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury in Mouse Liver – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36902538/
Antonella Koutela, George Loudos, Maritina Rouchota, Dimitris Kletsas, Andreas Karameris, George Vilaras, George C Zografos, Ioanna-Maria Grypari, Dimitrios Dougenis, Apostolos E Papalois – A Novel Experimental Rat Model for the In Vivo Assessment of Myocardial Ischemia Based on Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36881049/