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| E. C. Vamvakas |
| Executive Vice-President, Medical, Scientific and Research Affairs of Canadian Blood Services, and an adjunct professor of pathology at the University of Ottawa. |
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I am the Executive Vice-President, Medical, Scientific and Research Affairs of Canadian Blood Services, and an adjunct professor of pathology at the University of Ottawa. Before coming to Canada, I was director of the Blood Bank and associate professor of pathology at the New York University School of Medicine. Previously, I was chief of the Pathology Service of the New York Veterans Administration Medical Center, and assistant director of the Blood Transfusion Service of the Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School. I received my MD degree from the National University of Athens, an MPH in epidemiology from Harvard University, an MPA in health services management from New York University and an MPhil and a PhD in health policy analysis also from New York University. My research interests include transfusion-associated immunomodulation, the epidemiology of blood transfusion, and applications of meta-analysis to pathology practice.
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Why did you go into hematology?
My specialty is pathology, as blood banking in the United States is a subspecialty of pathology. I was drawn to pathology because it is an intellectual and theoretical specialty that requires interpretation.
Who or what has most inspired you in your work?
My mentors, including Drs. Vittorio Defendi, Gloria Gallo and Dimitrios Trichopoulos.
Which scientific papers have made a great impression on you?
Fracastorius: De Contagione (translated as "Contagion," by WC Wright), New York: Putnam: 1930. Chadwick E: Report…On an Enquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain. London: Clowes, 1832. Jenner E: An Enquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae. London: Low, 1798.
What is the most important lesson you've learnt in your professional life?
Success is always the result of a team effort.
What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?
I am uncomfortable with this question.
What are the best and worst aspects of your job?
Best: the constant challenge. Worst: the lack of time for any kind of personal life.
When or where are you happiest?
Weekdays in Manhattan, weekends in Montréal.
What do you do to relax?
Strolling through old Montréal.
What book are you reading at the moment?
Rereading The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell.
What's your most evocative piece of music?
Albinoni's Adaggio.
What's your favorite film?
Bergman's The Seventh Seal.
What are your hobbies?
Reading European history and philosophy of religion.
What car do you drive?
None. Having grown up in Athens and lived in Boston and New York, I never had to learn to drive.
What are your unfulfilled ambitions?
Too many to list.
How would you like to be remembered?
As an honest man.
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