Onassis Health

A matter of health, a matter of culture

From Aristotle Onassis’s impassioned vision to the works and activities of the Foundation. A story with a past, present, and future that never ceases to change the conditions of life for tens of thousands of patients and their families while also changing the face of medicine in Greece.

We invest steadily and over time in health, covering society’s fundamental needs.

The individual is always at the center of the Onassis Foundation’s activity. It is our firm belief that modern healthcare services and first-class treatment practices must be made available to all. A sustained and progressive program – of transformative investments, scholarships, and ongoing training for medical and nursing professionals – is helping us achieve our aim of offering care and protection to every individual in society.

The Foundation’s first major healthcare project, which became the groundbreaking template for everything to come, was the foundation of the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center (OSCS), entrusted to the Greek State in 1992. It is the gift of life and of a lifetime – the first hospital in Greece ISO certified for the quality of all its services, including adult and pediatric cardiology, cardiac surgery, and heart transplants.

Τwo fully digitized nursing centers in Greece

Honoring the past and looking steadily toward a better future, in 2024, the Onassis Foundation will implement its vision of the Onassis National Transplant Center, the first and only organ transplant center in the country, which was designed to radically change the state of health in Greece. With its activities, the Onassis Foundation is creating a truly national web, overseen by the Hellenic Transplant Organization (EOM), which will lead to the increase in and more effective implementation of transplants, breathing new life into the field of health in the country. At the same time, in collaboration with the EOM and the OCSC, it undertakes the National Initiative for Organ Donation and Transplantation, a holistic approach to actions aiming at breathing new life into the organ transplantation sector and supporting the organ donation culture. This Onassis National Transplant Center is expected to become a reference point for organ donation and transplantation at a national level, whereas together with the OSCS they will constitute two fully digitized nursing centers in Greece, promoting research and innovation.

The Foundation’s contribution to health goes on

The Foundation’s offerings neither began nor ended there. With the same human-oriented focus and, at the same time, keeping high standards for innovation and excellence, it has delivered the donation of the VECTRA WB360 system as part of the overall renovation of the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center at the “Andreas Syggros” Hospital. The Foundation also continually upgrades the medical equipment at hospitals and continues to invest in the knowledge of health professionals, offering fellowships and continuing education.

With particular sensitivity to children, the Onassis Foundation supports associations engaging in important work, such as the Elpida Association of Friends of Children with Cancer and ELEPAP Rehabilitation for the Disabled; within the Onassis National Transplant Center, it is creating Onassis Children, the first autonomous unit for transplants exclusively for children in Greece.

If there is anything worth celebrating at the Onassis Foundation, it is life in itself.