Assoc. Prof. Irena Velcheva is a graduate of the Medical Academy, Sofia – a specialist in nervous diseases.

Since 1990, she has been an Assistant Professor, Head of a Neurology Department, and since 2001 – Head of the Neurology Department with the St. Naum University Specialized Hospital for Neurology and Psychiatry, Sofia. 1993 – 2001 she was the Medical Director of the same hospital.

Since 2016, she is the Head of the Nervous Diseases Department at Uni Hospital. Medical expert with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education and Science. Longtime national consultant on nervous diseases. Author and co-author of 180+ scientific publications, 21 monographs and 13 textbooks on nervous diseases. Her main scientific and professional interests are in the field of cerebrovascular diseases – hemorheological changes and functional neurosonographic tests, diseases of the autonomic nervous system, headache, epilepsy, diseases of the peripheral nervous system.

Assoc. Prof. Velcheva is a member of the boards of national and international organizations and foundations: the European Society of Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation, the International Danube Association for Neurology and Psychiatry, the Bulgarian Physicians Association, the Stroke Prevention Foundation. Member of the management team of the Scientific Group on Autonomic Nervous System with the European Academy of Neurology. Long-term scientific secretary of the Bulgarian Society of Neurology. Chair of the Medical Sciences section of the Bulgarian Scientists’ Association. A representative of Bulgaria in the European Board of Neurology and the World Federation of Neurology. Deputy Chair of the Bulgarian Association of Neurosonology and Brain Hemodynamics and the Bulgarian Association of Biorheology. Member of the editorial boards of Bulgarian and international scientific medical journals: Science, Medical Science, Brain Diseases, Bulgarian Neurology, Neurosonography and Brain Hemodynamics – Editor-in-Chief, Series on Biomechanics, Balkan Journal of Medicine, Medical Magazine. Winner of the Bulgarian Physician Honorable Award for her contribution to the development of Medicine, contribution to the Development of St. Naum General Hospital, contribution to the Red Cross organization cause.