Athanasios (Thanassis) Dritsas was born in Athens. He finished high school at Varvakeio Model School. He studied medicine at the Medical School of National & Kapodistrian University of Athens and specialized in cardiology at Guy’s & Hammersmith Hospital, RPMS, London, UK. In parallel with his medical studies, he studied advanced theory and composition of music with Kostas Kydoniatis and Yannis Ioannidis. He is an active member (Silver Member) of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC) and a distinguished member of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC). He has published a large number of full scientific papers (PubMed/Google Scholar) on the subjects of exercise physiology-cardiopulmonary exercise, cardiac rehabilitation, quality of life, music interventions in cardiovascular patients. His areas of expertise are cardiac rehabilitation, cardiovascular disease prevention, therapeutic interventions via music and psychosocial intervention in cardiology. He has been trained at the Athenian Institute of Anthropos (AKMA) in Systemic Thinking and Group Therapy Process.

He has been internationally recognized as a pioneer for his clinical and research activity on the use of music as a therapeutic tool (music medicine) and is a distinguished member of the International Association of Music and Medicine (IAMM). He has been internationally recognized as a “bridge” personality between medicine and art and has been honored with the international Fontane Di Roma Award (2013).

As a composer, he has released six (6) personal albums (CDs) with his musical works and as an author has published many scientific essays, works of philosophical reflection and works of literature. Sponsored by the Alexander Onassis Foundation, he was the editor of the pioneering publications «Music Interventional Events as Therapeutic Tool» (edition National Research Foundation, 2003) and «Art as a Means of Therapeutic Regimen» (edition National Research Foundation, 2004).

In 2019, he was awarded by the Academy of Athens for his scientific work concerning the application of music in the treatment of cardiac patients.

He works at the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center as a Cardiologist, Deputy Director in the Department of Non-Invasive Cardiology of the Cardiology Section.