The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) was founded in 1925 and today is the largest Higher Education Institution in Greece and South-eastern Europe, with 13 faculties and a total of 42 departments and 4 independent Schools. The Research Committee is legally responsible for the financial management of all types of funds for research, educational training, technological development and continuing education projects.

The Laboratory of Sports Medicine of TEFAA AUTh (est. 1992) is the largest Sports Medicine center in Greece (ISO certified). It is an expertly staffed and fully equipped lab for the non-invasive cardiac screening of athletes and trained individuals, aiming to promote safety during exercise and prevent exercise- induced complications and sudden cardiac death. Moreover, the Sports Medicine Lab is a modern exercise rehabilitation center. The last 26 years the Laboratory of Sports Medicine develops, organizes and coordinates exercise rehabilitation programs for patients with chronic kidney disease, coronary artery disease, chronic heart failure, diabetes mellitus and other chronic diseases, which are unique in Greece. More than 200 patients with chronic diseases exercise free of charge every year in Thessaloniki’s Public Gyms. Additionally, intradialytic renal rehabilitation programs are performed in the Renal Unit of AHEPA Hospital for CKD patients on dialysis. The high level of research is possible also thanks to the modern equipment, organized in the form of the core facilities. The expertise and extensive scientific recognition of its scientific personnel in the field of exercise rehabilitation, will be of special help for the project.

The scientific team at the Lab of Sports Medicine, AUTh, since more than 26 years has been studying the cardiovascular, psychological, and other effects of exercise training in patients with chronic diseases and especially in patients with chronic kidney disease. The expertise in various medical biotechnology tools, including the use of telemedicine methods translational research and the use of novel approaches to understand the mechanisms of normal and diseased heart function in relation to their adaptive approach to exercise has the chance to be efficiently combined in the Sports Med Lab.

RESEARCHER

The Director of the Laboratory is Dr Evangelia Kouidi, Professor of Sports Medicine and Cardiologist, who specializes in conducting long-term physical rehabilitation studies and evaluation of the anatomical and functional adaptive effects of exercise training for patients with chronic diseases. Since 1996, she organizes and coordinates exercise rehabilitation programs for patients with renal, cardiac, and other chronic diseases. Her current research interests include design, implementation, and monitoring of exercise rehabilitation programs for various chronic diseases, cardiovascular screening of patients, as well as cardiovascular and muscular adaptations of exercise training in patients with chronic kidney disease. She has been awarded seven times by the European Renal Association (ERA-EDTA) for her research and four times by FIMS and other medical Associations. She has been twice awarded for “Excellence and innovation in Health” from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (a. in 2020, b. in 2008). She is participating in two EU project about promoting physical activity and behavioral change in CHD patients and patients with stroke. She was also a Nucleus Member of the Exercise, Basic and Translational Research Section of the European Association of Cardiopulmonary Prevention and Rehabilitation (EACPR) of ESC, (2006-2014) and a national leader in European research groups about exercise rehabilitation in patients with chronic diseases, as EuroCaReD (from 2014-2017) and EXPERT tool from (2015 until present). She is a nucleus member of the European Association of Rehabilitation in Chronic Kidney Disease (EURORECKD) and a Vice President from 2012. She has also research experience in e-Health applications in exercise training programs and sports medicine, participating in a National Strategic Reference Framework Project. She has more than 150 publications in scientific journals (90 in Scopus) with an h-index: 27.

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