Question: hi yasmin, what interested you into studying the cardiovascular side of science?

Yasmin Dickinson answered on 10 Nov 2021:

Hey AvaL! Thank you so much for your question 🙂

Its hard to remember the exact moment when I found my love for cardiovascular science but I always found the heart such a fascinating organ. The heart is one of the body’s most essential organs and its astounding how it just keeps on pumping 24/7 from the moment you’re alive. Even the structure of the heart looks so beautiful!

I really enjoyed studying the cardiovascular system and all the heart diseases that can arise back when I was in school. When I was doing my undergraduate degree and had to decide on a thesis project, there was one that focused on cardiovascular health and I immediately went for it because I knew I’d enjoy the topic so much!

Cardiovascular disease is still so common in the world we live in, it seems everyone will know someone who has a heart condition, or who unfortunately had a heart attack. My own father suffered from a heart attack back when I was studying my Master’s!! Its something that not only affects the patient, but their loved ones too.

In general, cardiovascular science is a really good field to go into as a scientist because so much research on heart disease is still needed! For example, Coronary Heart Disease (a condition where the blood vessels supplying the heart becomes narrowed or blocked) is one of the UK’s leading causes of death, and the healthcare costs of heart disease in the UK costs around £9 billion each year!! With so many people suffering from heart conditions, and with still so much to discover about why these conditions happen in the first place, it shows you just how much research is still needed to solve and hopefully treat all the different types of heart disease.

If you are interested in working as a scientist, either in academia (in a university) or in industry (with such companies as AstraZeneca or GSK) then cardiovascular science is a great field to study because there is A LOT of funding for cardiovascular research (this means that scientists and universities get given big sums of money to do research in heart disease).

If cardiovascular science is something that really interests you there are other roles you can look into:
– Healthcare careers in cardiac sciences: https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/healthcare-science/roles-healthcare-science/physiological-sciences/cardiac-sciences
– Clinical Scientist in Cardiac Sciences: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/clinical-scientist-cardiac-sciences
– Lecturer in Cardiovascular Science: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/higher-education-lecturer
AND MANY MORE!! 🙂

Is cardiovascular science something you are interested in then? (high five haha!!)

If you have any more questions or want advice please just message me again, I’ll be more than happy to answer your questions 🙂