Doctor at the Nephrology Clinic, associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine, member of eminent international associations, with rich experience in clinics worldwide, initiator of organizing the health system in Macedonia during the corona pandemic, at the forefront of the first rotations of the Infectious Diseases Clinic at the beginning of the corona pandemic in Macedonia… These are just some of the activities of Dr. Igor Nikolov, known as Gila at the Clinic, among friends, and patients.

Now Nikolov is also the head of the list of councilors for the Council of the Municipality of Butel, and recognizable in the municipality as a neighbor and a doctor who helps them at all times. With his active involvement in politics and local elections, Dr. Igor Nikolov wants to transfer and share his international experience, as well as the experience and good organization in his profession with his fellow citizens. Dr. Igor – Gila is a supporter of the “Think globally, act locally!” maxim iorder to have a better society, a better environment and a better country to live in.

Education with francophone accent

Senior research associate Dr. Igor Nikolov graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, since 2001 he has a license to work as a doctor, after which he is employed at the Clinic of Nephrology. He completed his residency in internal medicine in Macedonia, and in March 2019 he acquired the title of subspecialist in nephrology at the Medical Faculty in Skopje.

Apart from this, Dr. Nikolov has a rich international experience. As a scholarship holder of the French Government’s Agency for International Exchange, he completed his Master’s degree in 2006 at the University of Picardy in Amiens, France, earning a Master’s degree in Medicine. As a scholarship holder of the French Society of Nephrology, in December 2009 he completed his doctoral studies at the Faculty of Medicine at the Pierre and Marie Curie University – Paris 6 and obtained the title of Doctor of Medical Science. It is a university ranked sixth in the European Union. Or what one would say – internationally recognized, respected at home.

Apart from specialty training in France, he also works there. In the period from November 2014 to October 2015 he was elected visiting professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Toulouse Rangueil, France. In the same period he was the coordinator of the project for university cooperation and professional exchange of doctors between France and Macedonia supported by the Agency of Francophone Universities.

Students say he is best educator

At the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Igor Nikolov in 2003 was elected a junior assistant in the internal medicine class. Since then he has been holding practical classes for medical and dental students, as well as classes in internal medicine and internal propaedeutics. He was re-elected to the same title in 2009 and held exercises for medical and dental students and in classes in clinical examination, internal medicine, emergency medicine, and family medicine. In the winter semester 2009/2010, he was evaluated as the best assistant in the internal medicine class by the students of the medical faculty. In 2020 he was elected senior research associate, ie associate professor at the Medical Faculty in Skopje.

Rich party experience

Dr. Igor Nikolov is a longtime member of VMRO-DPMNE and has contributed in several areas and several bodies of the party. He has been a member of VMRO-DPMNE since April 1998, and is currently the head of the VMRO-DPMNE’s Health Committee. In the period 2017-2020 he was member of the party’s Executive Committee.

Previously he was co-chair of VMRO-DPMNE’s Health Committee, member of VMRO-DPMNE’s Family Affairs and Demography Committee, member of VMRO-DPMNE’s Economy and Diaspora Committee, member of the Health Committee of the party’s Kisela Voda branch ( 2011-2014), member of the Health Committee of the Butel branch (2009-2011).

Too many to be counted

When it comes to Dr. Igor Nikolov and his activities in scientific research, they are too many to be counted. So here are just a few.

During his studies he participated in the 8th EU Student Conference, held at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, he also participated in the 24th Annual Eastern Student Research Forum, held in Miami. There he received the first prize for oral presentation of a clinical research paper.

After graduating in January 2003 and 2005, he participated in the 3rd and 5th Postgraduate ERA –EDTA CME Training Course of Nephrology held in Prague.

Nikolov was part of the nephrology activities at the Necker Hospital in Paris, held annually from 2006 to 2010.

Dr. Nikolov was part of the ERA-EDTA Congresses held in Glasgow and Stockholm in 2006 and 2008. In 2008 he attended seminars on uronephrology held in Paris.

In the 2008/2009 academic year he attended lectures on the subspecialty nephrolithiasis and under the guidance of Professor Lacour and Professor Knebelman he followed patients with renal lithiasis. In 2016, at St. Louis Hospital in Paris, he attended a clinical course in echosthetoscopy as part of the training of clinic specialists to introduce this method as a routine.

His crowning achievement is membership in renown international institutions, membership in the European Renal Association (ERA-EDTA), the French Society of Nephrology, and the Francophone Transplant Association. He is the secretary of the Balkan Medical Union (Union Médical Balkanique), an association that unites Francophone doctors in the Balkans.

New methods

Dr. Igor Nikolov has introduced a method of morphological analysis and classification of calculi from the urogenital tract, which is performed at the University Clinic of Urology and the University Clinic of Nephrology, for which he has received an award from the European Association of Urology. As head of the Transplant Department at the University Clinic of Nephrology in the period 2013-2014, he actively participated in the reactivation of the organ transplant procedure from a cadaveric donor. In 2018 at the Mother Teresa Clinical Center he initiated the introduction of a method of kidney biopsy under computed tomography.

On the frontlines in the fight against the coronavirus

Igor Nikolov – Gila is also known as a doctor who was on the frontlines against the coronavirus. After Macedonia confirmed its first case of the coronavirus infection on February 26, 2020 and after the announcement of the first rotations, he immediately joined the team at the Infectious Disease Hospital.

But his activities do not end here. On the contrary, Nikolov continues the fight in the field of organization of the health system during the corona pandemic. The activities in VMRO-DPMNE in this regard are led by him as head of the Health Committee, from detecting the weaknesses of the system, to offering proposals.

Doctor Nikolov together with the party leader Hristijan Mickoski at the beginning of the pandemic attended at a meeting in the Government where they proposed specific measures to deal with the pandemic, as well as a way to reorganize the health system in this period.

Whether and to what extend the Government adopted their proposals was shown during the entire period of the corona pandemic. At the beginning there was no personal protective equipment, inadequately organized staff, lack of medicines, delay of vaccine procurement…

Health Minister Venko Filipce did not want to debate about all this. Dr. Nikolov invited him publicly to a debate several times, but Dr. Filipce never accepted.