History of The Laboratory of Sports Medicine of AUTh
The Laboratory of Sports Medicine of AUTh was established in 1992. It is the biggest Sports Medicine centre in Greece which is standardized by ISO 2007. The main staff of the Laboratory includes 7 professors and 8 researchers, who are skilled and are experts in sports cardiology, exercise physiology, sports nutrition and physical rehabilitation.
The laboratory of Sports Medicine is a fully equipped for non-invasive cardiac evaluation of athletes. It collaborates with many sports clubs and leagues for the screening of athletes. And until today, there have been more than 30,000 athletes examined in the laboratory. The last 25 years cardiac and renal rehabilitation programs are applied in the Laboratory of Sports Medicine.
More than 200 patients with chronic cardiac diseases exercise free of charge every year in Thessaloniki’s Public Gyms. Additionally, renal rehabilitation program is performed in the Renal Unit of AHEPA Hospital. Exercise training programs for children with oncologic diseases and cystic fibrosis, and for adults with diabetes mellitus and psychiatric disorders are performed, also. The person in charge of the rehabilitation programs is the Director of the Laboratory, 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 cardiac and renal diseases.
The past director of the Laboratory is Dr. Asterios Deligiannis, who is a Cardiologist, and a Professor of Sports Medicine. He is extremely experienced in sports cardiology, and his research focuses on the cardiovascular adaptations of exercise training. Dr. Asterios Deligiannis is the primary investigator of many projects. He has successfully published more than 500 manuscripts in scientific journals and was invited as the lecturer in a lot of International Congresses. In the education sector, the members of the Laboratory participate in two postgraduate programs (one of them in Sports Medicine). Furthermore, the Laboratory organizes an annual post graduate teleconference course in Sports Medicine between Greece and Cyprus. Moreover, the personnel have participated in 6 EU projects as well as in a significant number of national projects in Greece.