Born on 30.08.1963 in Varna. Graduated from the Medical University of Medicine - Varna in 1988 as the top student. Since 1991, she has been an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics. Acquired specialties: pediatrics (1995); endocrinology and metabolic diseases in childhood (1999), and since 2011 she has been the Chairman of the State Commission for Awarding a Specialty in Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases; qualification in Health Management (2004). In 2002, she defended her dissertation for the acquisition of the scientific and educational degree "doctor" on the topic " Effect of low birth weight and height on postnatal growth and some markers of increased cardiovascular and metabolic risk in adolescents ". In 2012, he defended his dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Sciences on the topic: "General and abdominal obesity - prenatal and postnatal influences. Significance for the increased risk profile from childhood " . In 2007, he became an associate professor, and in 2013 - a professor of pediatrics.
Secretary (since 2011) of the ESPE Postgraduate Committee, and from 2016 to 2022 – its Chair ( https://www.eurospe.org/media/1579/about-the-clinical-fellowship-v2.pdf ); founding member of the Global Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes Initiative (GPED). Since April 2010, she has been Chair of the Medicine Section at Sofia University – Varna, and since 2017 – Chair of the Management Board of Sofia University – Varna. From 2018 to 2024, Prof. Yotova is Deputy Director of the Scientific Institute at the Medical University – Varna. She is Chair of the Quality Commission of the Faculty of Medicine until 2024. Prof. Yotova is Head of the First Children's Clinic with DOIL and Head of the Pediatrics Department at St. Marina University Hospital . She is an external expert at the National Health Insurance Fund, an expert in temporary working groups at the Ministry of Health, and the chair of the expert council on pediatric endocrinology and metabolic diseases. Prof. Yotova has been the head of the department since 2019, and since 2024 – Deputy Rector for Research at MU-Varna.
Prof. Yotova has been invited as a speaker at forums on obesity, growth and diabetes in Thessaloniki (2006), Rome (2007), Ljubljana (2009 , 2025 ), as well as a guest speaker at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia - USA (2010), Timisoara (2013), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (2014). She was a teacher at the Winter School of Pediatric Endocrinology (Hungary, 2005) and hosted the same in 2006. In 2008 she was a trainer at PETCA (Pediatric Endocrinology Training Center in Africa) in Nairobi, Kenya - an initiative of ESPE and WDF for the introduction of pediatric endocrinology in Africa. From 2013 to 2015 she represented Bulgaria in the Paediatric Committee of the European Medicines Agency. Prof. Yotova is the principal investigator for MU-Varna on two major European projects – ToyBox ( www.toybox-study.eu ) and Feel4Diabetes ( www.feel4diabetes-study.eu ), as well as a representative of Bulgaria in the COST action BM1303 A systematic elucidation of differences of sex development, DSD ( http://www.cost.eu/COST_Actions/bmbs/BM1303 ). Dr. Yotova has won a number of funded scientific projects, including from the Scientific Research Fund, and since 2023 she has been leading Work Package 6 of the Endo-ERN project (HADEA, 2023-2027). She currently has 8 defended and 7 full-time doctoral students in the process of defense or training. Prof. Yotova is a member of the Editorial Board of the journals "Pediatrics", "Nauka Endocrinology", "Notices of the Union of Scientists Varna", Scripta Scientifica Medica, BMC Endocrine, BMC Pediatrics, Journal of Clinical Research and Pediatric Endocrinology, Endocrine Connections. Reviews abstracts for the annual congresses of ESPE (pediatric endocrinology), ISPAD (childhood and adolescent diabetes), ESE (endocrinology) and EASO (obesity), as well as for J Pediatrics, Pediatric Diabetes, Int J Pediatr Obesity, Acta Paediatrica, Hong Kong Governmental Funds, etc. Prof. Violeta Yotova is an active public figure and works on many initiatives together 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, Program for individual care for children with diabetes and rare diseases in school and kindergartens, etc.). Since 2015, Prof. Yotova has been the head of CITAT-D (Center for Innovative Therapies and Advanced Technologies in Diabetes at the University Hospital "St. Marina") and the chief researcher of the SWEET project, as well as a representative in the international registries i-DSD, i-CAH, i-Turner (SMD registries). She has been the chairwoman of the Board of the Union of Scientists - Varna since 2017.
Since 2016, she has been the Director of the Varna Expert Center for Rare Endocrine Diseases and Co-Chair of the Education and Training Working Group of the European Endocrine Network ENDO-ERN ( https://endo-ern.eu/ ).
In 2021, she was awarded the Honorary Badge of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria for merits in the field of children's healthcare and to the "Bulgarian Christmas".
As of April 2025 , Prof. Yotova has 363 full - text publications, 195 of which in IF journals, and over 400 participations in scientific congresses. Her H-index is 39 (WoS), 3 7 (Scopus), and i-10 index – 1 1 0, with over 1 1 000 citations in the scientific literature. The main scientific developments are in the field of childhood diabetes, growth and endocrine consequences of small birth size, and in recent years – in the field of prevention and treatment of childhood obesity and rare endocrine diseases, as well as in applied scientific research to lower the age of diagnosis of growth abnormalities ( www.growinform.org ; www.mgv.growinform.org ) and improve access to and quality of treatment for these children (Partners4Growth). She is the head of numerous scientific grants and the host of the International Postgraduate Course in Childhood and Adolescent Diabetes and Rare Diseases, held every 2 years since 2011 ( www.vapesbg.org )
- Pearson E. R. , Flechtner I. , Njolstad P. R. , Malecki M. T. , Flanagan S. , Larkin B. , Ashcroft F. , Klimes I. , Codner E. , Iotova V. et al . Switching from insulin to oral sulfonylureas in patients with diabetes due to Kir6.2 mutations. N Engl J Med 2006; 355: 467-77
- Stettler N., V Iotova. Early growth patterns and long-term obesity risk. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care 2010, 13(3): 294-99, Feb 22 [Epub ahead of print]
- Iotova V, Bertherat J, Mastorakos G, Hiort O, Pereira AM. Endo-ERN in its 5th year - a pinch of care, science, curiosity and new horizons. Endocr Connect. 2022 Feb 1:EC-22-0082. doi: 10.1530/EC-22-0082. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35175223
- Iotova V, Schalin-Jantti C, Van Beuzekom C, Bruegmann P, Broesamle M, Hiort O, Pereira AM. An overview of the outreach of the 2019-2021 Endo-ERN knowledge generation webinars. Endocr Connect. 2023 Jul 1:EC-22-0512. doi: 10.1530/EC-22-0512. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37450855.
- Reppas K, Papamichael MM, Usheva N, Iotova V, Chakarova N, Cardon G, Rurik I, Antal E, Valve P, Liatis S, Makrilakis K, Moreno L, Manios Y, Moschonis G. Associations between household food environment and daily intake of regular and diet soft drinks per BMI status of European children: Feel4Diabetes Study. Nutr Bull. 2024 Jan 30. doi: 10.1111/nbu.12659. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38288678.
- NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC). General and abdominal adiposity and hypertension in eight world regions: a pooled analysis of 837 population-based studies with 7·5 million participants. Lancet. 2024 Aug 31;404(10455):851-863. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01405-3. PMID: 39216975
- Kostarellou P, Anastasiou CA, Karaglani E, Iotova V, Usheva N, Tankova T, Rurik I, Liatis S, Legarre NG, Moreno LA, Lindstrom J, Wikström K, Cardon G, Makrilakis K, Manios Y; Feel4Diabetes-study group. Prospective association between breakfast consumption frequency and BMI z-score among European school-aged children. The Feel4Diabetes Study. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2025 Jan 25. doi: 10.1038/s41430-025-01570-9. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39863752.
BPA, BDE, BASORD, VAPED, BNSDE, SUB, ISPAD, ESPE, IASO, EASO.
