Floros

Georgios

Short CV – Georgios D. Floros M.D, Ph.D

I was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in May 1974. I am a licensed Adult Psychiatrist since 2011. I was elected as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in the Medical School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) on July 2024.

Education

Following my basic Medical training, I completed the M.Sc course "Medical Research Methodology - Clinical Research" from the Medical School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) in 2006 and my PhD thesis was conducted in the 2nd Department of Psychiatry of the AUTh in 2015 (‘Investigation of psychiatric symptoms and comorbidity in a student population that indulges in excessive use of the Internet and Personal Computers’).

Research on digital addictions

I was a founding member of the Hellenic Association for the Study of Internet Addiction Disorder in 2008 and currently serve a third term as Vice Chairman of the Board. This marks the beginning of my involvement with the pathological manifestations of the interaction between humans and the Internet.

The research work that was conducted through actions of the Association include the "Hippocrates" Internet Addiction Disorders Investigation Program in the Greek island of Kos in 2008-2010, the program "Internet habits of the adolescents of Cyprus", in the framework of the Program European Network of Health Promotion Schools (2013), the Research Program of online behaviors in the Greek Army (2013-14) and the European Internet Research Project (joint program with the University of Toulouse Jean Jaures, the Philipps-Universität Marburg, Eotvos Lorand University of Budapest, SecondaUniversita degli studi di Napoli,Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan Poland, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid Spain, Istanbul University and Nottingham Trent University, 2016). Results from these research projects have been published in peer-reviewed journals and cited extensively.

I was an instructor in the staff training program for the fight against addictions in Cyprus ‘Prometheus’, where members of the Association trained the addiction professionals of Cyprus in addressing digital addictions (2019). Previously, I have conducted numerous training workshops for health professionals and teaching staff on cyberbullying and online addictions in Greece and Cyprus.

The Association has held five International Conferences on technological addictions for which I was leading the Scientific Committee. I was also a member of the Scientific Committee in four consecutive annual conferences on Cybertherapy, Cyberpsychology and Social Networking Conference (C.Y.B.E.R 19-22) organized by the International Association of CyberPsychology, Training & Rehabilitation (iACToR).

The Association has run for the past two years an annual program of open-air meetings aimed at informing the public both on the limitless possibilities inherent in the Internet, but also for preventing and controlling any risks associated with Internet use, sponsored by COSMOTE S.A (the largest telecom company in Greece) and for seven years prior for VODAFONE Greece (second largest telecom company in Greece and major provider throughout Europe). Drafting a manual with instructions for safe use of the Internet, was part of the program and this guide is freely available to all and regularly updated with the latest developments.My contribution included more than fifty presentations open to the public and a pivotal role at organizing the programs in total. These programs in their entirety were funded by these private entities, as part of their Corporate Responsibility Services after direct negotiations with my participation.

 My research interest on I.A.D culminated on me being responsible for planning and organizing the Student Counseling Service to deal with the pathological use of computer and Internet at AUTh since its inception on 13/01/2010.

My general research output includes fifty-three published research papers in peer-reviewed journals, a number of which were invited editorials (ORCID ID 0000-0001-8193-3571), my h-index is 23 and i10-index is 39 according to the Google Scholar database. I have contributed as a reviewer in 48 publications with more than a hundred reviews (https://publons.com/researcher/244757/georgios-d-floros/). I am an Editorial Board Member of BMC Psychiatry (Impact factor = 3.63) section ‘Substance-related disorders, addiction and impulse control’. I am a Special Issue Editor with Frontiers in Public Health (Impact factor = 3.7) with one successfully completed Special Issue and another open for submissions.

I was involved with the Pan-European program COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) CA16207 "European Network for Problematic Usage of the Internet" as an alternate member of the Management Committee representing Greece (MC Substitute member) from 22-4-2019 after approval by the Directorate of International Scienceand Technological Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.COST programs are supported by the EU Framework Program Horizon 2020. The official program page is https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA16207.