Keivan Javanshiri

My name is Keivan Javanshiri. I went to med school in Lund and started my journey as a PhD student through Master’s thesis at med school in 2018. In 2023, I defended my Doctoral thesis on risk factors for dementia, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, but also on heart disease with a specific kind of dementia, Lewy body dementia.

I am now a resident physician, and you could say that it is very research oriented. We follow research, day in and day out, and update our clinical guidelines when new research is presented, and you have to be able to assess things critically. As a physician, a PhD adds weight to your credibility - you can work with clinical research, and contribute to quality assurance at your clinic, for example.

Postgraduate research studies are really a mix of supervision and a lot of your own responsibility. You have to get to grips with issues yourself, you have to take responsibility for things. That also gives you personal development.

I would say that if you are interested in research, but don’t really know what it is, Master’s and Bachelor’s theses are good opportunities to try what it is like, what it implies, and how much work it is.