Alumni portrait of Filip Gnesin: Passion, Perseverance, and Patience
In May, Filip Gnesin defended his PhD project titled: “Impact and Determinants of Prehospital Recognition of Acute Cardiovascular Disease” at the University of Copenhagen. Since medical school, Filip has been fascinated by using data to answer clinically relevant questions. Filip’s passion for medicine, statistics, and data has stayed with him throughout his research journey and as he steps into his current occupation as a junior doctor in general practice.
Combining a passion for medicine, programming, and statistics
From early on, Filip was introduced to cardiovascular epidemiology by various teachers and mentors at medical school. Here, he quickly saw how Danish health registries could answer questions no randomised trial ever could. Looking back, he realised that he wanted to pursue a career as a researcher within the cardiovascular area: “I fell in love with the combination of medicine, programming, and statistics and wound up in an inspiring research group with a great supervisor. At that point, I had no choice!”.
Reflecting upon his time as a PhD student, the first word that comes to Filip’s mind is curiosity. He loved the freedom to develop his own ideas, dive deep into projects, and work closely with so many great researchers. Simultaneously, Filip also grew on a personal front: “It was a period where I grew both scientifically and personally”.
Gaining inspiration from various researchers
Filip points out that there are several researchers that have had a significant impact on him and his research. One of them is his PhD supervisor, Christian Torp-Pedersen, medical doctor, professor and specialist at Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, who “showed me the power of using statistical programming to answer questions in medicine”.
Another significant figure in Filip’s research journey was his bachelor’s supervisor, Bianca Hemmingsen, Medical Officer at the World Health Organization, who first got him into research. Finally, his statistics teacher, Thomas Fanshawe, Senior Medical Statistician at Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, played a significant role in shaping Filip’s passion for statistics: “Thomas Fanshawe somehow made me love statistics, which is no small feat”. Reflecting upon his time with various mentors, Filip concludes: “I am very fortunate to have had them as mentors”.
Learning how to persevere
However, Filip’s research has naturally not been without its challenges. When asked about the challenges, he has faced while doing research, he draws attention to two main challenges: “Turning a broad idea into an answerable question takes longer than you would think. Data cleaning takes even longer”. He also highlights the many obstacles he has faced when trying to publish research: “Reviewer 2 will make you question why you even began the project in the first place. You learn perseverance and patience”. While these challenges were time-consuming, they were also the things that Filip learned from.
Including AI in research
Currently, Filip works as a junior doctor in a general practice as part of his clinical basic training. Seeing patients on a daily basis has sparked many new questions that he hopes to answer in the future with his research. Beyond the research itself, his passion comes from “knowing you can make a real difference in people's lives is very motivating”, he adds.
In the future, Filip looks forward to work with a combination of research and clinical work: “Clinical work and research complement each other really well”. Lastly, he would love to continue his research including AI and prediction modelling which he finds significantly important in the future: “I think it will play an important role in medicine in the coming years”, he concludes.