Van onderzoeksstage op hypertrofische cardiomyopathie (HCM) naar PhD, Cardiothoracale Chirurgie!

Afgelopen april verstrekte de Stichting een kleine financiering aan onderzoek naar Hypertrofische cardiomyopathie. Met dit geld heeft Olga Papazisi veel geleerd en haar steentje bij kunnen dragen aan de cardiovasculaire wetenschap bij de afdeling fysiologie aan het Amsterdam UMC – lokatie VUmc. Middels deze financiering, hét opstapje dat zij nodig had binnen het onderzoeksveld, ontving zij onlangs een acceptatie voor een PhD positie binnen de cardiothoracale chirurgie!

Olga schreef een brief naar het bestuur. Hierin deelt zij hoe zij de samenwerking met de Stichting heeft ervaren. Zij schrijft:

” A pleasant journey has come to an end. Therefore, I would like to thank for the support, because without it, I would not have the opportunity to be here now.
Even though research is not part of the curriculum in all medical schools, it is very important for the medical advancement. Without it, we would not be able to improve our medical practices, the available treatments and the prognosis of different diseases. Doing research helps you to improve your critical thinking and gain many skills that will make you a better clinician. Despite the importance of doing research, getting funding for it can be very hard. Especially for juniors. Many foundations require you to be more experienced. Therefore, my search was limited and disappointing. I got lucky to be informed about Hart4Onderzoek that was willing to support juniors. A few months after sending an inquiry to them, I received a grant!

In those months, I had the opportunity to learn how to critically appraise a scientific article, how to make a literature study, I learned how to read magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the heart and, also, how to use software in order to edit the images and get the parameters that we were interested in. Moreover, I got experience in presenting scientific results in front of others and how to prepare for possible questions that might arise. During this time, I got the chance to participate in weekly meetings which included MRI educational meetings, meetings with the HCM research group and, also, educational lectures about different topics in cardiovascular science. 

I am very excited to share with you my next step: I got accepted for a PhD position in LUMC Leiden starting in September! My project will be about Vasoplegia (low blood pressure that does not respond to the use of medication) in patients undergoing heart failure surgery. 
When I look back, I realize how lucky I was to be given this opportunity. I am very thankful for all the support and help and I am also very happy that there is still a foundation that believes in young scientists and supports cardiovascular research.

De stichting is super trots aan deze magnifieke ontwikkeling te hebben bijgedragen en wensen de pas gepromoveerde junior onderzoeker heel veel onderzoeksplezier, cardiothoracale chirugische kennis en succes toe!