Pharmacology Matters editor, Aisah Aubdool, interviews Dr Abhinav Vepa about his studies and research.
Hello Dr Vepa, and welcome to Pharmacologist in Phrame! What is your background and career pathway to date?
After completing school at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School for Boys, Barnet, I went on to study Medicine at King’s College London, with an intercalated BSc in Pharmacology. After graduating medical school with a distinction, I then went on to complete the academic foundation programme which, as a junior doctor, essentially gave me allocated time for research. I subsequently went on to work on a locum basis across a variety of specialities to build-up my clinical experience over 2 years and have now recently started a 3-year training programme to become a GP.
What research are you currently working on?
I am involved in digital health research regarding optimizing the total hip replacement. Currently, I am working on a data set from a cohort of patients who had COVID-19 in one of the hospitals where I was working. During this project, I was able to identify the importance of data analytics in healthcare and this is something I am excited to learn more about in the future, especially given the recent rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Why did you choose to study medicine?
Since childhood, I was always fascinated with human biology and thus, during my school years, I organized work experience at Barnet Hospital, Aravind Eye Hospital in India, as well as Conductive education with special needs children. I gained an appreciation as to how rewarding a career devoted to helping others could be, which would also enable me to pursue my interests in human biology.
What have you enjoyed the most during your training?
The training process has been mentally, physically, emotionally and financially demanding. However, with the mental demands has come continued intellectual stimulation and learning, with the physical demands has come the avoidance of a desk job, with the emotional demands I have built resilience, and finally despite the financial demands I have benefitted from job security.
Why did you choose to intercalate in Pharmacology during your MBBS degree?
I won the Wolfsons Bursary Award after my second year of Medical school for top academic performance which motivated me to do an intercalated degree in Pharmacology. My enjoyment of Pharmacology stemmed from an interest in the pharmacodynamics of nutrition and supplements, as I am a keen weightlifter. I worked in the laboratory of Dr Julie Keeble under the supervision of Dr Khadija Alawi in the vascular biology department at King’s College London. My research project focussed on investigating the role of transient receptor potential vanilloid-1 (TRPV1) in hyperthermia. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about inflammation and oxidative stress during my intercalated year and was lucky enough to obtain my first peer reviewed publication in FASEB Journal as a result of the TRPV1 research I was involved in during this year. I owe a lot of my critical appraisal and research skills to this intercalated year.
How would you choose a mentor and what are on your thoughts on mentorship?
I do believe that it is often difficult to have one over-riding mentor in this day and age due to the rising workload pressures coupled with falling inflation-adjusted incomes, especially in the medical profession. Furthermore, career pathways are constantly changing, and my generation of doctors and academics are often having to carve out their own career pathways in order to suit their individual preferences and circumstances, but also to keep up with the rapidly changing world. In my experience, we often receive useful advice and guidance, throughout our lives, based on the experiences and insights of others. In a way, each and every one of these encounters can be perceived as a ‘micro-mentorship’ which all aggregate together to provide vast, unbiased career insights. Overall, I believe that networking, intellectual discussion and ‘micro-mentorships’ can often be more valuable for those in pursuit of the more recently popular portfolio careers.
What do you like and dislike about your current position?
It has of course proven to be challenging to balance clinical commitments with research interests. However, I do consider myself lucky to be able to have a job which incorporates decision making and leadership, helping the sick and those in need, continual education and learning, multidisciplinary teamwork, teaching, practical procedures, advanced communication as well as ground-breaking research. Having this level of variety in my daily job maintains a good level of intellectual stimulation and keeps me content.
What has been your most important scientific finding or publication to date?
I have enjoyed winning poster competitions and participating in international presentations, laboratory-based research, clinical research as well as review articles. My first peer reviewed publication was in FASEB Journal in 2015 and was a result of the TRPV1 research I was involved in during my intercalated year. This work was featured on the front cover of the journal’s issue. Moreover, I contributed to a Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis investigating the cardiovascular benefits of the Mediterranean diet which was amongst the top 10% of most downloaded publications in Wiley in 2019.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
Something that is lacking in my career I would say is creativity as we often follow protocols in everything that we do as doctors or scientists. To overcome this, I like innovative cooking, photography and videography in my spare time. I have taught myself Adobe lightroom, photoshop, premiere pro, and illustrator using Youtube. In terms of hobbies, I personally enjoy fitness in my spare time and have met many fascinating people from all walks of life in the gym. At a bodyweight of 80kg, some of my personal records are 140kg bench press, 210kg squat and 240kg deadlift. I also occasionally enjoy rock climbing, gymnastics, and scuba diving.
What advice will you give to a young person interested in studying medicine and intercalating in pharmacology?
If I could give one piece of advice to the next generation of medical students with an interest in Pharmacology, it would be to strongly consider the prospect of a portfolio career so that they can have a flexible multitude of roles and responsibilities, often providing more job satisfaction, intellectual stimulation, and catering better to their personal circumstances.
What are your top tips for networking in this field?
I have built up my own network by engaging regularly with social media, attending conferences and events, working across multiple hospitals on a locum basis, and socializing via friends as well as hobbies. I used to perceive social media as a tool for socializing. However, I have learnt that its applications are far and wide ranging from business marketing to health promotion. Traditionally, research studies and journals were credited solely based on citations. However, the importance of ‘reads’ is now being recognised and I am seeing researchers often sharing their work on twitter; having a million followers would surely help!
Can you tell us a little bit of your experience as junior doctor in working closely with patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection?
The lockdown has been a difficult period and I have worked extensively on a busy COVID-19 hospital ward. The pandemic is challenging emotionally as we saw a steep rise in deaths. However, in order to get through the first lockdown period, it was imperative to make the most of the situation which I did by getting involved in COVID-19 research, which provided a good distraction. I also admit that it was quite exciting facing the unknown, having to work outside of protocol, and following the daily updates in global COVID-19 research.
Rapid-fire round with Abhinav
- Favourite book? Harry Potter, although I am not much of a book person. My bedtime reading usually consists of Google searches for interesting articles regarding any interesting questions that I may have had throughout the day.
- Favourite Movie? The Lion King, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Rocky I-IV
- Favourite Scientist? My Dad - Dr Ranjan Vepa, PhD Stanford (Aerospace Engineering)
- Sweet or savoury? Savoury and spicy, but variety is key
- Tea or Coffee? Speaking as a pharmacologist, it all depends of the caffeine content. At work and before exercise, I have black coffee, no sugar. On a day off in the afternoon, a matcha green tea with a pinch of stevia or xylitol works well. In the evening, camomile tea with some manuka honey is great as it is caffeine-free. Strictly no caffeine after 5pm!
- Night in or night out? Night in
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