Dr Irene Themistocleous

Dr Irene-Chrysovalanto Themistocleous is a Teaching Research Faculty at University of Nicosia. She studied Physiotherapy at European University Cyprus (BSc Physiotherapy, 2013). She also earned an MSc in Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation (2015) from University of Chester, United Kingdom and a PhD in Physiotherapy (2022) from University of Nicosia, Cyprus. The topic of her PhD dissertation was “The process of translating and culturally adapting the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) questionnaire into Greek, specifically for the overweight and obese population, and its utilization in health management through circuit training”.

Dr Themistocleous has worked as a Physiotherapist in both hospital and private practice settings, in the UK, Greece and Cyprus. She has 10 years of clinical experience in cardiorespiratory health and rehabilitation, including acute care environment as well subsequent phases of treatment.

She first joined University of Nicosia in 2015, as a clinical mentor in clinical placements (cardiorespiratory, neurology, musculoskeletal) and she is actively involved in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses related to cardiovascular physiotherapy, pulmonary physiotherapy, exercise physiology and kinesiology. In addition, she is supervising a number of undergraduate students as they work on their dissertation.

Her research interests are focused in the areas of physiotherapy and therapeutic exercise in patients with chronic diseases, rehabilitation using virtual reality environment and prevention of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Throughout in higher education, Dr Themistocleous has been involved in research projects in the area of physiotherapy and therapeutic exercise in clinical populations such as cardiac patients, pulmonary patients, musculoskeletal patients, obese and overweight patients. This involvement led to several publications in different journals and presentations in various conferences.

Dr Themistocleous is an active committee member in Physiotherapy subcommittee on cardiovascular diseases of Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) and a member in Diabetic foot Capacity Planning of Ministry of Health.