Profession: Physician and scientist

Specialising as a physician while doing a second doctorate in the natural sciences, medical professional Nadine Heiden initially considered this idea an experiment as there are not yet many colleagues in her field who are going down this road. -I always wanted to do both - take care of patients and do research,- the 30-year-old says. The director of her clinic, Prof Michael Schäfers, himself a practising physician and active scientist, encouraged her to pursue the opportunity. For just under a year and a half, Nadine Heiden has been an assistant physician in training to become a specialist in nuclear medicine at the Münster University Hospital. In this role, she is working through the various stages of her training, taking care of patients with tumours, thyroid conditions, and heart disease, among other issues, making diagnoses using medical imaging and carrying out therapies. In her day-to-day work at the clinic, she discusses numerous patient cases with her colleagues and works on her accompanying education courses. So as to also be able to engage in research during this specialisation process, she is periodically released from her clinical tasks.