Dr Ourania Kolokotroni BMedSci, BMBS, PhD, PgCert Healthcare Education

Dr Kolokotroni is an Assistant Professor in Pathophysiology at the Cyprus University of Technology since September 2021. She is a Medical Doctor (BMBS, University of Nottingham, 1999), specialized in the area of Paediatrics and a member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, United Kingdom (2004). She got a PhD from the Cyprus University of Technology (2015) where she investigated the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in adolescent sin Cyprus and the association of vitamin D with asthma and allergies prevalence.

She was the Research Coordinator of the Paediatric Respiratory Research Unit at the Cyprus International Institute for the Environment and Public Health at the Cyprus University of Technology for 7 years (2006-2012) and was involved in the organization and conduction of large population studies, funded through competitive grant applications. These studies focused on the investigation of the distribution and determinants of childhood asthma and other chronic disease such as obesity. In addition, her PhD was on the prevalence of Hypovitaminosis D, its determinants and association with chronic illnesses such as asthma.

In 2011, she got an academic position at the University of Nicosia Medical School where she contributed to the development of new medical school. Amongst other, she led the development and coordinated the Master in Family Medicine Programme as well as the development of the professional exams for Membership with the Royal College of General Practitioners United Kingdom (MRCGP INT). She was the Chair of the Department of Primary Care and Population Health at UNic Medical School (2017-2021) and was involved in establishing a diverse range of activities in the areas of Education, Research and Health Care Delivery.

Her current research interests are in the area of early life determinants of health and more specifically she is interested in the role of nutrition during pregnancy and early life in the development of obesity and other chronic diseases. She led the EARLY START in LIFE project (2020-21, funded by the University of Nicosia Medical School seed grants) that investigated the knowledge, skills and educational training needs of parents in the area of nutrition during pregnancy and early life with the aim to develop an intervention to reduce adverse exposures in early life that might impact the development of obesity in childhood. Dr Kolokotroni also participated in a number of applied research projects aiming to improve health promotion services provided by local NGOs. She was the Researcher Liaison between the Cyprus Breastfeeding Organization and the research team of the Cyprus University of Technology for the BrEaST Start in Life Project (ΕΕΑ NGO Grants, 2014-2015) that investigated breastfeeding rates and determinants of breastfeeding in Cyprus. She also participated in the Erasmus project Baby Buddy Forward (2018-2021, KA204 - Strategic Partnerships for Adult Education) which used the participatory action research approach to transfer and contextualize a health digital app developed for parents in the UK to the Cyprus setting. She is also interested in the development of innovative educational tools for tertiary healthcare education and is currently involved in an Erasmus project (2019-2022, KA203 - Strategic Partnerships for higher education) that aims to develop a curriculum for enhancing empathy skills in healthcare professionals with the use of Virtual Reality technology.

Her community work involves promoting healthy pregnancies and natural labour and supporting Breastfeeding through her actions with local NGOs such as Birth Forward (Chair of Scientific Advisory Board) and the Cyprus Breastfeeding Association (Founding Member and President of the Board). She is also an Interim board member of the Cyprus Epidemiology and Public Health Association.