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The University of Athens will exhibit a series of innovative products and services from June 30, to July 7, to the splendid Zappeio Exhibition and Conference Centre in Athens.
Among the exhibitors is the Medical Physics Laboratory of the School of Medicine, with the Portal of the Modern Asclepieion Park of the School of Medicine. Despite the early stages of the Portal development this is a very good opportunity for promoting the ideas of citizen empowerment via telematic means in Health, Culture, Environment and Social interaction and the relevant services in an especially designed Park.

We are experimenting with the replacement the 'Events and News' section of the Modern Asclepieions web pages with the weblog http://asclepieion.blogspot.com/ . We hope that it will be more efficient.

A meeting was held between the President of the Athens Municipal Council Mr Theodoros Bechrakis, the adviser to the Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity Ms Zoi Kolitsi and the Associate Professor of the School of Medicine of the University of Athens Dimitrios Sotiriou, to discuss the collaboration of the three institutions on the creation of the 'Asclepieion Park of Athens'. The meeting was an initiative of Executive Secretary

Many events concerning Modern Asclepieions took place since the last reporting date. Among them it is worth mentioning the informal agreement to form a collaboration between the 7 Greek Schools of Medicine to provide content for the scientific portal of Modern Asclepieions.

D. Sotiriou has discussed the ideas on Modern Asclepieions and the creation of the 'Asclepieion Park of Athens' with the Secretary General of Research and Technology, Professor John Tsoukalas, on January 17, 2005. Professor Tsoukalas was also informed about the promotion of of Modern Asclepieions ideas in ITU and the Word Summit of the Information Society www.itu.int/wsis (please visit http://www.itu.int/wsis/stocktaking/scripts/documents.asp?project=1101457213&lang=en ) and asked support from the Greek scietific authorities

The School of Medicine and the 'Stoa of the Books' organised an exhibition of medical books and a series of presentations for the general public on medical topics, in the premises of the Stoa in down town Athens, from November 9 to November 13, 2004. The event curried the title ' The social role of modern Medicine - The contribution of the School of Medicine of the University of Athens'. Modern Asclepieions were presented by the Proceedings of the 1st Pan-Hellenic Conference on Modern Asclepieions (published in 2004), the album presenting the ideas and the solutions proposed for the Asclepieion Park of Athens (published 1in 1998) and a Poster (in Greek). You can view the Poster

Extract from the REPORT OF THE RAPPORTEUR'S GROUP MEETING ON QUESTION 14-1/2, 14 SEPTEMBER 2004, edited by the RAPPORTEUR FOR QUESTION 14-1/2prepare Professor Leonid Androuchko (Document 2/REP/027(Rev.1)-E)

On October 24 we visited the Moore exhibition in the new Glyptothek in the Park onf the Greek Armed Forces in the Goudi area. The exhibition was very worth visiting as well as the new installations. We were delighted to see that despite the very long delay, the area starts to engulf cultural activities in the spirit of a Modern Asclepieion. This is a very nice development since the proposed in 1994 'Asclepieion Park of Athens (in a way) starts to materialise!

The proposal of the School of Medicine of the University of Athens to consider Modern Asclepieions as a vehicle for the promotion of the Information Society goals in all societies and especially in the less developed ones, was presented in the meeting of ITU Study Group 2, which took place in Geneva, from September 13 to 16, 2004. The proposal was presented by Dimitrios Sotiriou, Associate Professor of Medical Physics, at the School of Medicine of the University of Athens, Greece. Dr Sotiriou is working on the subject since 1994. The proposal was included in the Agenda as paper 173. One can view the paper in English, French or Spanish.

A wave of informal information and rumours hit the public opinion of the Athens metropolitan area in the last few months in relation to the agreement by the Government to allow the contraction inside the Asclepieion Park of Athens of a new stadium for approximately 40,000 spectators - the Arena as it was called - for the private company of the football team «Panathinaikos». The drama took shape when the Minister of Culture himself announced just before Christmas, the Government's decision to approve the construction.

This is a shame! This is against the citizens and the children struggling for open spaces and parks, especially after the construction of several buildings in the few existing open spaces with the pretext of the Athens Olympic Games. This is against the existing legal framework protecting the particular area and respecting the patients of the 7 large hospitals operating inside the park.

Despite the official announcement people believe that this is just another trick in view of the national elections to be held on March 7, 2004. Lets hope that the public opinion is right. Despite this the owners of the football club never seized to seek Government's approval for the construction of the stadium.

This is the real real reason why so many officials including governments say nice words about the prospects of creating the Asclepieion Park of Athens since 1994 but in reality do exactly NOTHING!

On October 16 2003, Dimitrios Sotiriou, Associate Professor of Medical Physics (School of Medicine University of Athens), addressed as specially invited speaker the participants of the Conference

The School of Medicine on the University of Athens, on the 8th Session of its General Assembly, on June 20, 2003, decided to support the creation of the Modern Asclepieion of the School of Medicine. The first phase will be a pilot application at the premises of the School at its Goudi area campus. Please see the developments at http://asclepieion.mpl.uoa.gr/aspis/ in case you are an academic and enter the Portals at http://asclepieion.mpl.uoa.gr/citizens-eng/ in case you are a citizen.

A new proposal to the University of Athens has been put forward by d. Sotiriou, to study in detail the transformation of the surroundings area of the "Attikon" hospital in a Modern Asclepieion. Attikon general hospital is a totally new facility of 750 beds which has started partial operation on July 2002. The hospital will be fully operational by 2004. It is highly possible that the hospital will host several University Clinics. Similar proposals are to be deposited in the next days to the Health authorities (three of them out of a total of 17 for Greece, are responsible for the grater Athens area).

The Member of Parliament Ms Fofi Gennimata runs now as a candidate for the Super Prefecture of Athens, in the elections of October 13, 2002. We hope that the issue of the "Asclepieion Park of Athens" will be brought to the headlines (see related issue on May 21, 2001 below).

The Portal development has been proved slower than originally envisaged. Our requests to the University and the Ministry of Health for additional support did not bring in results. The Portal constitutes of three components: the first concern the scientific information, the second the non scientific information related to the operation of all units and activities within the park and the third concerns the necessity to participate in the developments (it is called ePnyka, the electronic equivalent of the famous ancient Athens Municipal Forum Pnyka). The portal is not accessible form outside the School of Medicine campus (intranet). Development is continuing.

Greece has put forward the proposal "Modern Asclepieions" to the NATO CCMS programme. The proposal was presented by D. Sotiriou in the CCMS Plenary session on March 21, 2002. The proposal draw positive comments. The proposal will be discussed again during the October Plenary, since the Delegations asked for more time in order to be able to inform interested institutions in their respective countries.

A small team of persons started working on the issue of creating a Portal (on a demonstration basis) for the "Modern Asclepieion Park" of the School of Medicine of the University of Athens. The development is carried out with software tools provided kindly by MICROSOT Hellas. Test are to begin in spring 2002.

The President of the Association Dimitrios Sotiriou was received by Member of Parliament Ms Fofi Gennimata on May 17, 2001 for more than an hour. They discussed issued related to the creation of the Asclepieion Park of Athens".

We have started working on the 1st International Research Workshop "Modern Asclepieions: Health <-> Culture". The event is expected to take place in spring or autumn 2002, provided that funding will be secured. Please visit the pages created for this purpose and be kind enough to send us your comments and suggestions

The President of the Association, has had a long collaboration with the journalist Ms Peny Bouloutza of the daily and influential Greek newspaper KATRHIMERINI aiming at the publication of an extended article about Modern Asclepeions and the "Asclepieion Park of Athens", on April 12, 2001 . KATHIMERINH published a rather short article on Saturday April 21, 2001 entitles "A Study for the Asclepieion Park"

On March 27, 2001 a meeting concerning the study of the "Asclepieion Park of Athens" form the point of view of economic and financial issues, has taken place at the Athens headquarters of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. PWHC has been represented by 5 members of its staff. The Association has been represented by E. Spithas and D. Sotiriou. It has been agreed to contunue deliberations along the directions discussed in the meeting.

There are undergoing discussions with "Athens 2004" for the "Asclepieion Park of Athens" to be included in the in the activities planned for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. It is reminded that within the Asclepieion Park the Modern Pentathlon Games will take place and therefore new or improvements of the existing athletic installations are being planned. Athens 2004 promised to bring on the same table the planners of the interventions and Members of the Association. Our expectations for this forthcoming event are really high ...

Science and Technology Week / Programme HERMES