The Rheumatology Unit in Ioannina was created at the beginning of the 1980’s together with the establishment of the Department of Internal Medicine of the Medical School of the University of Ioannina. Patients were treated on the wards of the old ‘G.Hatzikostas’ Hospital along with the patients of the Internal Medicine Clinic. Director of the Department of Internal Medicine was Prof. H.M.Moutsopoulos. His expertise in autoimmune rheumatic diseases resulted in the influx of patients from various districts of Greece, seeking for diagnosis and treatment of often complex medical situations. 

So by early 1981 the Rheumatology Out-patient Department had begun its function with the services of Professor Moutsopoulos and his two trainees in internal medicine, Dr A.A.Drosos and Dr F.Skopouli. Simultaneously the immunology research laboratory started functioning with the collection of patients’ serum for the carrying out of special immunological tests. Originally the laboratory was installed in two areas at the old ‘G.Hatzikostas’ hospital installations at the Molos area of Ioannina, while later more space were added, as the laboratory expanded. In this endeavour the microbiology consultant Dr. A.Mavridis with the assistance of three medical students, A.Tzioufas, M.Manousakis and P.Vlachoyiannopoulos, formed the first immunology laboratory team.