Fellow Spotlight: Ilias Nikolakopoulos, MD

Ilias Nikolakopoulos, MD, grew up in Greece, and earned his medical degree from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. As a research fellow at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, he worked with large patient registries and randomized controlled trials to study cardiac catheterization procedures, developing algorithms to optimize patient outcomes and reduce complications. “We worked to create a more systematic way to personalize treatment,” he said. He completed his internal medicine residency at Yale University, and chose to pursue cardiology because of its data-driven nature and opportunity to care for patients in both the acute and clinic settings.

At UCSF, he appreciates the welcoming environment, breadth of clinical services and emphasis on teaching. “Everyone is geared towards learning,” said Dr. Nikolakopoulos. “I spent the first few weeks learning how to perform echocardiograms from the sonographers, and it’s been a tremendous experience. Also, my co-fellows are fantastic.” After fellowship he will likely pursue advanced training in multimodality imaging and an academic career as a physician-scientist. Outside of medicine, he enjoys biking, running and trying out new recipes. He is married to Evangelia Vemmou, MD, another UCSF cardiology fellow.