Professor Vassilios Papalois

Vassilios Papalois is Professor of Transplantation Surgery and Consultant Transplant and General Surgeon at the Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College, London, UK. He leads transplant programmes of excellence focusing on high risk and extended criteria kidney and pancreas transplantation. He has done extensive work in advancing living donor kidney transplantation (including paired and pooled, and altruistic kidney transplantation), kidney donation after cardiac death, extended criteria kidney and pancreas transplantation and use of hypothermic machine perfusion for organ assessment and re-conditioning prior to transplantation. 

He has been active in surgical research for more than 30 years and has published more than 200 papers in peer review journals, 22 book chapters and 8 books. His research focuses on pre-transplant assessment and reconditioning of marginal kidney and pancreas grafts, use of stem cells for treatment of chronically scarred allografts, surgical education, clinical ethics, medico-legal challenges, and health policy. 

He is the President of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) representing 41 countries and 1.7 million medical specialists, the Past-President of the European Society of Organ Transplantation (ESOT), Past-Member of the Executive Board of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI), Member of Council of the European Society of Surgery (ESS), Editor in Chief of the World Journal of Transplantation (WJT), NIHR NW London Subspecialty Lead for Transplantation, Advisor to the General Medical Council (GMC), Advisor to the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Head of Student Conduct (Phase 3) for Imperial College, and member of the editorial board of 11 international peer review journals. 

Professor Papalois is the Head of Professional Development and Tutoring of the Pears Cumbria School of Medicine (PCSM), a partnership between Imperial College and the University of Cumbria. The professional development project aims to engage constructively the students of the PCSM with the health community of Cumbria from their first days in the medical school, support their professional development and enhance the chances of them staying, serving the Cumbria community and thriving professionally in Cumbria.

Professor Papalois is also Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Avon and Somerset Constabulary and Vice-Chair of the Research Ethics Committee of the UK Ministry of Defence. 

Professor Papalois has been an invited keynote speaker in more than 200 national and international congresses. 

Professor Papalois has dedicated almost 25 years of his career in advancing European collaboration and integration in the fields of training requirements, professional development, accreditation of trainees, trainers, and training centres, as well as development and accreditation of top class undergraduate and post-graduate medical education programmes. Furthermore, he has spearheaded the establishment of the European Transplant Registries.

Upon the request of the Greek Government and with the support of the Onassis Foundation, Professor Papalois along with Professor Mossialos delivered a unique and comprehensive scientific study for the new National Organ Donation and Transplantation Plan for Greece.  The plan was passed as legislation in Greece in March of 2023.  The scientific methodology of the plan has been published in 8 peer review papers in a special issue in Transplant International and will serve as the model that all transplant programmes in Europe can use for their appraisal and advancement.

Professor Papalois has been awarded a Silver National Award for Clinical Excellence by the UK Department of Health, a Senior Clinical Investigator Award by the European Society of Organ Transplantation, and a Teaching Excellence Award by Imperial College. 

He has also been awarded an Honorary Doctorate and Chair from the University of Thessaloniki in Greece and he is an Honorary Member of the Spanish Association of Surgeons and the Spanish Transplantation Society – the only transplant surgeon in Europe to have both accolades. Professor Papalois is the Deputy Non-Executive President of the Onassis Cardiothoracic Centre and the Patron of the West London Kidney Patients Association – an honour by his patients that he considers as the greatest reward of his career.