Assoc. Prof. Iren Tsocheva

Associate Professor Tsocheva is a graduate in medicine from Sofia Medical University in 1997 and started her professional career as a district therapist in XIIth Outpatient Clinic. As her knowledge as a therapist expanded, so did her desire for scientific activity. After successfully passing a competitive examination in 2000 she started to develop her PhD thesis on “Clinical, immunological and genetic features of bronchial asthma in childhood” at the Department of Paediatrics of Sofia Medical University, in the first in Bulgaria Children’s Clinic.

 

The next five years were a period of combining active clinical and scientific activity. She completed numerous courses and trainings in the field of immunology, epidemiology, and genetics of lung diseases in France, Spain, Croatia, but the most important for her formation as a specialist in paediatric pulmonology was the specialization 2002 – 2003 at the “Ludwig Maximilians University”, Ludwig University, Munich, under the mentoring of the world expert in the field of childhood asthma, Professor Erika von Mutius

 

After defending her doctoral thesis and passing the examination for the specialty in Paediatric Diseases in 2006, she continued her work as a resident physician, Assistant Professor and Chief Assistant Professor at the Clinic of Paediatrics of the Alexandrovska University Hospital and as a lecturer at the Department of Peadiatrics of Sofia Medical University

 

In the following years, Associate Professor Tsocheva developed her professional skills through certification courses in spirometry, thoracic ultrasonography and conventional fibrobronchoscopy. She acquired her specialty in the field in which she had worked since 2000 – “Paediatric Pulmonology and Phthisiology” in 2014.

 

Since 2014, she has been the Head of the Paediatric Unit for Acute Respiratory Diseases of the Paediatric Clinic at Alexandrovska University Hospital.

 

In 2018, she joined the team of N. I. Pirogov University Multiprofile Hospital for Active Treatment and Emergency Medicine as the Head of the newly established Department of Pediatrics.

 

In December 2019, she has been awarded the academic position of Associate Professor in the scientific specialty of Paediatrics, and as of 2020, she is a Master’s Degree holder in Public Health and Health Management.

 

Her active scientific activity is reflected in more than 100 publications and participations in national and international scientific forums.

 

Her professional interests include the progressing of asthma throughout childhood, the impact of prematurity on respiratory function in adolescence, viral and bacterial respiratory infections, limiting antibiotic abuse, and preventive medicine in early childhood. As she began working at the largest emergency care hospital in the country, her professional experience expanded into the area of paediatric emergencies.