Prof. Violeta Iotova was born on 30 August 1963 in Varna. She graduated in Medicine from the Higher Medical Institute–Varna as the top student in the graduating class. She became an Assistant Professor at the Department of Paediatrics in 1991. Acquired Specialities: Paediatrics (1995); Paediatric Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases (1999), and since 2011 she has been the Chair of the State Commission for Speciality Awarding in Paediatric Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases; qualification in Health Management (2004). In 2002 she defended a dissertation thesis for the acquisition of an educational and scientific degree “Doctor of Philosophy" (PhD), entitled “Effect of Low Birth Weight and Height on Postnatal Growth and Some Markers of Increased Cardiovascular and Metabolic Risk in Adolescents". In 2012 she defended a dissertation for the acquisition of a scientific degree Doctor of Science (DSc), entitled “Total and Abdominal Obesity – Prenatal and Postnatal Influences. Significance for the Impaired |Risk Profile from Childhood". She was habilitated as an Associate Professor in 2007 and as a Professor of Paediatrics–in 2013.
Secretary of the ESPE Postgraduate Qualification Committee (2011), and its Chair from 2016 to 2022 https://www.eurospe.org/media/1579/about-the-clinical-fellowship-v2.pdf; a founding member of the Global Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes (GPED) Initiative. Since April 2010 she has been the Chairperson of Section Medicine at the Union of Scientists–Varna, and since 2017 – Chair of the Management Board of the Union of Scientists–Varna. Prof. Iotova was Vice–Director of the Research Institute at MU–Varna from 2018 to 2024. She was the Chairperson of the Quality Committee of the Faculty of Medicine and Head of the Department of Paediatrics at UMHAT “St. Marina"–Varna until 2024. Prof. Iotova has been invited as a guest lecturer at forums on obesity, growth and diabetes in Thessaloniki (2006), Rome (2007), Ljubljana (2009), as well as a guest lecturer at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, the USA (2010), Timișoara (2013), Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania (2014). She was a lecturer at the Winter School of Paediatric Endocrinology (Hungary, 2005) and hosted the same event in 2006. In 2008 she was a trainer at PETCA (Paediatric Endocrinology Training Centre of Africa) in Nairobi (Kenya), an initiative of ESPE and WDF, targeted at introducing Paediatric Endocrinology in Africa. She represented Bulgaria in the Paediatric Committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) from 2013 to 2015. Prof. Iotova is the Principal Investigator for MU–Varna in two major European projects – ToyBox (www.toybox-study.eu) and Feel4Diabetes (www.feel4diabetes-study.eu), as well as a representative of Bulgaria in COST action BM1303 A Systematic Elucidation of Differences of Sex Development, DSD (http://www.cost.eu/COST_Actions/bmbs/BM1303). Dr. Iotova has won a number of funded research projects, including from the Research Fund, and since 2023 she has been leading Work Package 6 of the Endo-ERN project (HADEA, 2023-2027). Currently, she has seven defended and seven full-time PhD students in the process of defence or training. Prof. Iotova is a member of the Editorial Board of the journals of Paediatrics, Science Endocrinology, Proceedings of the Union of Scientists Varna, Scripta Scientifica Medica, BMC Endocrine, Journal of Clinical Research and Paediatric Endocrinology, Endocrine Connections. She reviews abstracts for the annual congresses of ESPE (Paediatric Endocrinology), ISPAD (Diabetes in Children and Adolescents), ESE (Endocrinology) and EASO (Obesity), as well as for J Paediatrics, Pediatric Diabetes, Int J Pediatr Obesity, Acta Paediatrica, Hong Kong Governmental Funds, etc. Prof. Violeta Iotova is an active public figure that has been working on numerous initiatives in cooperation with local and patient structures (Speech Development of Children in Nurseries; “I Succeed" – a project to combat childhood obesity, a project to prevent and treat adrenal crises, seminars to promote rare diseases, a Programme for Personalised Care for Children with Diabetes and Rare Diseases at Schools and Kindergartens, etc.). Since 2015 Prof. Iotova has been the Head of CITAT-D (Centre for Innovative Therapies and Advanced Technologies in Diabetes at UMHAT “St. Marina") and Principal Investigator of the SWEET project, as well as a representative in the international registries i-DSD, i-CAH, i-Turner (SMD registries).
Since 2016 she has been Director of the Varna Expert Centre for Rare Endocrine Diseases and Co-Chair of the Working Group on Education and Training of the European Reference Network on Rare Endocrine Conditions Endo-ERN (https://endo-ern.eu/).
In 2021 she was awarded the President of Bulgaria Badge of Honour for services in the field of Paediatric Health and to the Bulgarian Christmas initiative.
As of September 2024, Prof. Iotova has 348 full-text publications, 178 of them in IF journals and more than 300 participations at scientific congresses. Her H-index is 35 (WoS), 30 (Scopus), and i-10 index – 100, with more than 10 000 citations in the scientific literature. Her major research interests lie in the field of childhood diabetes, growth and endocrine consequences of small birth size, and in recent years in the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity and rare endocrine diseases, as well as in applied research aimed at lowering the age in the diagnosis of growth abnormalities (www.growinform.org; www.mgv.growinform.org), and improving the access and quality of treatment for these children (Partners4Growth). She is the leader of multiple research grants and has hosted the International Postgraduate Qualification Course in Childhood Diabetes and Rare Diseases, held every two years since 2011 (www.vapesbg.org).
More info at:
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4160-1200
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Violeta_Iotova
