Abstract
Evangelia (Lia) Farmakidou was the first female Greek radiologist. She was a distinguished physician with an open mind and depth of thought, multitalented, with integrity and an independent spirit. She was also one of the founding members of the Hellenic Radiological Society in 1933. She strived for the recognition of her chosen field in Greece as well as for the creation of the Radiology Department in the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Introduction
Evangelia (Lia) Farmakidou 1,2 was born in Athens in 1890, at the turn of the 19th century. Her parents, Panfilos and Irene – whose maiden name was Stavrianopoulou – came from Domnista, a small village near Karpenisi, the capital of the prefecture of Evrytania in central Greece. They had three daughters – Evangelia, Margarita (1901–1930) and Theodosia (1907–1977). On her father's side she was a second cousin of the renowned Greek physician Georgios Pananikolaou (1883–1962). 3
Lia Farmakidou spent her school years at Arsakeio, a girls-only boarding school located in Athens, where girls could be educated after the difficult years of the Greek War of Independence (1821–29). 4 She graduated from Arsakeio in 1907.
In the following year she enrolled in the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens from which she graduated with the highest honorary distinction at a time when Greece had become embroiled in the First Balkan War. She acquired her medical licence on 9 July 1913 (Figure 1).
Lia Farmakidou as a medical student – the sole woman among male counterparts – at the National and Kapodistrian University Medical School's Morgue lab (1909) (courtesy from the collection of Professor G Antonakopoulos, Histology Laboratory, University of Thessalia Medical School, Larissa, Greece)
Soon afterwards World War I exploded on the scene leading to dire consequences for the people of Europe and culminating in a huge loss of manpower. And so it was in 1916, in such a climate, that she found herself in Paris where she moved with the ultimate goal of perfecting her knowledge of the French language. There, for the first time, she came into contact with the most up-to-date medical techniques of that time. This first contact led to her attraction of the new field of Radiology, which had started to be applied to those injured in the war because of the ability that X-rays had in discovering the exact location of bullets, something inconceivable until then.
She was so impressed with the capabilities of this new technology that this experience influenced her entire medical career and she joined the advocates of this revolutionary new field. Her dream, as well as the mission of her medical career from this point on, was to have Radiology become recognized as a medical specialty as well as by Greek society as a whole.
After her stay in Paris, she returned to Greece and offered her valuable services as a young certified physician at the Medical Centre for the wounded soldiers in the war that had been set-up at the Maraslio School in Athens. With her was her sister Margarita who, although a teacher, served as a volunteer nurse.
The first pioneering steps in Radiology
As a person with a restless spirit and deep insight, she was able to perceive from the time of her stay in Paris at a young age that a new field of medical science was fast emerging on the horizon. Unfortunately, acquiring a degree and the necessary skills required for this new specialty were severely limited between the two world wars. However, Lia Farmakidou saved money and was able to open her wings to this new international medical arena. In 1925 she moved to Germany where she specialized in Radiology at the University of Munich. She returned as the first female radiologist in Greece and set up her own X-ray medical office in a privately owned building at 13 Gravias Street 5 in Athens, which she equipped with German radiological and radiotherapy equipment. Not satisfied with this training alone, she completed her PhD at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
The foundation of the Hellenic Radiological Society
Her love of radiology, her constant contact with qualified radiologists of her time and the dream they shared for Radiology led 20 doctors to found the Hellenic Radiological Society on 20 September 1933; they were: Vasilidis Demetrios, Vidalis Evangelos, Georgakopoulos Andreas, Gounaris Isidoros, Grigoratos Panagiotis, Throuvalas Antonios, Kalantidis Christos, Karzis Manos, Kontopoulos M, Kratsas Georgios, Kiniras Michael, Lambadaridis Athanasios, Lapatsanis Panagiotis, Kope Joseph, Petrohilos Stefanos, Prapopoulos Takis, Tsaggaris Konstantinos, Tsarouhas Vagias, Farmakidou Lia and Hart Felix/Eftihios. 6–9
Farmakidou was elected Chief Librarian for the first Board of Directors of the Hellenic Radiological Society in 1933, Special Secretary for the second Board of Directors in 1939 and Chief Librarian for the third Board of Directors in 1945. Finally, in 1955 she was voted as an Adviser to the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Radiological Society. 9
Farmakidou helped create the Radiology Department in the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. 10 During the 1950s she moved her office to the ground floor of a two-storey building at Mavromihali street in Athens, which she owned. It was then that she became interested in and personally involved in the use of radiotherapy to cure diseases of the skin. At a time when radiology was dominated by men, and she the only woman in the field of Radiology in Greece, she succeeded in acquiring both the regard and respect of her colleagues by becoming renowned for her knowledge, her medical skills and her successful diagnoses. As a radiologist always striving for the new and innovative, a physician with an open mind, liberal, with a wide range of thoughts, multitalented, with integrity and an independent personality, she was sociable and had an interest in the Arts. None of these virtues is rare in isolation but the combination shapes the virtue of a person.
Other Greek women followed in the specialty and by the 1950s nine female radiologists were in post – Electra Antipa (b. 1914), Katerina Adamaki (1913–2007), Mary Kyriakakou (1919–88), Vasiliki Nikolaidou (b. 1924), Evangelia Manthopoulou (b. 1925), Ioanna Keleki (b. 1926), Ira Florou (b. 1927), Dorothea Koumidou (b. 1927) and Sophia-Stametela Grolliou (b. 1927). 11
Scientific and social activities
Lia Farmakidou was a member of the Hellenic Association of University Women, established in 1924. 12 In 1932 she represented Greece at the Sixth Conference organized by the International Federation of University Women in Edinburgh. The Conference took place at George Watson Ladies College when Professor Winifred C Cullis was President. 13,14 In 1963 she organized unveiling the bust of the statue of World War II's Greek heroine Karagianni (1898–1944) with whom she had kept contact throughout the German occupation. Karagianni, head of the Resistance organization ‘Bouboulina’, was executed by the Nazi Germans in Haidari, Athens, along with 72 other compatriots because she had established a network for hiding Greek and British soldiers, providing them with medical care and helping them escape the country. The Athens Academy awarded Karagianni its Gold Medallion. 15
During her medical career, Farmakidou gave interviews to medical journals and daily newspapers, as well as a series of lectures at the ‘Parnassos’ Literary Society. ‘Parnassos’ had been founded in 1865 by the sons of the numismatist P Lambrou (1819–87) 16 and other young scholars, with a goal of fostering the intellectual, moral and social values of the Greek population. The Literary Society ‘Parnassos’ published also the monthly magazine Parnassos (1877–95), founded the night school ‘Destitute Children’ (from 1872), maintained a library, a branch of the Fine Arts and a lecture and exhibition hall. The Society had dwindled during the German occupation but the magazine resumed publication every three months from 1959. 17,18
In 1940 Lia Farmakidou expressed her concern and her experiences regarding the future of aesthetic medicine in her book entitled Aesthetic–Medical Science, published in Athens. 2 She spoke fluent French, English and German and had an adequate knowledge of the Italian language. She kept herself up-to-date medically, following advances in Radiology especially by reading French and German textbooks and magazines. She kept in touch and exchanged opinions with colleagues abroad, friends mainly from Germany from the time she lived and received her education in Munich. She also corresponded on a frequent basis with G Papanikolaou with whom she shared thoughts that were troubling her and her medical concerns.
Even in the last years of her life she remained active, full of energy and life, more than was to be expected for her age. Her advanced age did not confine her to the four walls of her home. She sought out, as in the old days, pleasant company and witty conversations. Luckily for her, she was surrounded by loving relatives and loyal friends. Never having children of her own, she decided near the end of her life to adopt her dear nephew, the director and scriptwriter Ermolao/Hermes Velopoulo (1930–2002), 19 the son of her sister Margarita.
She died in Athens on 10 November 1982, aged 92, of sound mind and body.