Ioulia Mariaki (Julie) is a senior respiratory nurse and Lead for the Respiratory Virtual Ward at Barts Health NHS Trust, with over 20 years’ experience across acute, community and integrated respiratory care. She holds an MSc in Advancing Healthcare Practice and is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA).

Her work focuses on developing safe, equitable and integrated models of respiratory care, with particular interests in Virtual Wards, admission avoidance, complex care, health inequalities and service improvement. She has led the development and implementation of clinical pathways and frameworks designed to address real-world challenges in delivering care to patients with complex needs.

Julie is also an experienced educator, with previous experience in university teaching and an ongoing commitment to clinical education and professional development.

Her recent work includes developing an approach to support people who use substances within a Respiratory Virtual Ward, moving away from blanket exclusion towards individualised risk assessment and mitigation. This work has been published in the British Journal of Community Nursing and reflects her wider interest in improving access, reducing health inequalities and translating frontline clinical challenges into practical improvements for patients and services.