Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Authors/reviewers
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Peer reviewer login
  • Journal club
  • Alerts
  • Subscriptions
  • ERS Publications
    • European Respiratory Journal
    • ERJ Open Research
    • European Respiratory Review
    • Breathe
    • ERS Books
    • ERS publications home

User menu

  • Log in
  • Subscribe
  • Contact Us
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
  • ERS Publications
    • European Respiratory Journal
    • ERJ Open Research
    • European Respiratory Review
    • Breathe
    • ERS Books
    • ERS publications home

Login

European Respiratory Society

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Authors/reviewers
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Peer reviewer login
  • Journal club
  • Alerts
  • Subscriptions

Confidences de Salon: Jørgen Vestbo

Breathe 2015 11: 319-320; DOI: 10.1183/20734735.114115
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

ERS President, Jørgen Vestbo, gives an intimate insight into his professional and private life http://ow.ly/UI3HV

Embedded Image

European Respiratory Society President, Jørgen Vestbo, is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at The University of Manchester, UK, and adjunct Professor of Respiratory Medicine in his native country at the University of Southern Denmark. His work principally focuses on clinical research and the epidemiology of COPD and he has more than 300 articles to his name, including the 2011 revision of the GOLD Strategy document and recents papers on COPD phenotypes and trajectories, along with contributions to many major textbooks, including the most recent ERS Monograph on Controversies in COPD.

Did you always dream of being involved in medical research/ healthcare?

To be honest, I was always interested in history and politics and thought that I would apply to study politics and economy at the University of Copenhagen. However, in high school, I fell in love with a girl whose entire family was doctors.

I thought that I needed to impress them and apply for medicine and so I did. We split up shortly thereafter but I was on my way in medicine. I have never regretted it and subsequently strongly believe that you can find satisfaction in life in many different areas, including those you were not aware of.

What is the best advice you had when you were starting your professional career?

To be open-minded and seize opportunities. Our world is full of exciting things but if you meet them with pre-conceived thoughts you will likely miss opportunities!

What advice would you give someone at the beginning of their professional career?

Work hard, do your best to find a mentor you trust and take their advice.

What has been the greatest change to make a difference in your field in your lifetime?

It is difficult to pinpoint one single event; I think I have been lucky to experience the growing interest and investment in COPD and to be able to be part of that.

What do you foresee being the next great thing and what do you foresee as being the biggest challenge in your field in the next 10 years?

The next great thing will be that we leave behind the concept of treating individual patients with airways disease on the basis of a diagnostic label alone. We will see the arrival of precision medicine enabling us to target individual disease pathways and specific disease characteristics in individual patients; independent of whether we would label them asthma, COPD, chronic bronchitis, etc. Through this, we will be able to get treatments with better effects and hopefully fewer side effects.

What is your favourite scientific breakthrough from any field?

The IT revolution in general. I am of an age where I can remember a world without the computer. My wife and I studied with a woman whose husband was doing a PhD at the technical university of Copenhagen. One evening, he took me into his study and showed me one of the first ever IBM PCs. He told me that this was a “personal computer” and that in 10 years’ time every family would have one. I thought “what a nerd, nobody would want something like that in their home”. I was wrong!

How do you see the future of ERS?

I see a very bright future with a society that is open and embraces more or less everyone with an interest in research and care of respiratory diseases. Gone are the days when ERS was an elitist society for the middle-aged European respiratory specialists. We will see an increasingly vibrant society, ready to take on the huge challenges of improving knowledge and care in our field.

When are or were you happiest?

I am happiest in two situations: when I am with colleagues discussing data and study findings, and when I have the opportunity to spend more than a day at home in the Danish countryside with my wife and closest family and friends.

What do you dislike most?

Arrogance and hidden agendas.

Who has been your greatest inspiration?

I have been lucky to meet people who have inspired the whole field of COPD, including Neil Pride, Nic Anthonisen and James Hogg. They have all inspired me, probably more than they know.

Whom would you most like to thank?

The numerous colleagues I have worked with for years. No man is an island; we all thrive through social interaction and we rarely achieve much unless we collaborate.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

I do not think my greatest achievement has been in my professional life. I have managed to marry an amazing person and to find a life companion in my wife. After 32 years of marriage we are still able to inspire each other, to learn and to enjoy the achievements of two great children. No professional achievement can ever compete with that.

Who are your favourite authors?

I have no single favourite author. Like many other busy people of my age I have become almost addicted to the new wave of fascinating crime novels and always travel with one.

Where would you most like to live?

I have been extremely lucky to be born on a very peaceful spot of the globe where I have had a safe childhood, good education and numerous possibilities. I am very happy with living in Denmark but working in the UK and often visiting other countries has made me realise that I could be happy in many places.

What qualities do you appreciate most in your friends and colleagues?

Loyalty and humour.

What do you consider to be your strengths and weaknesses?

I think that my main strengths are that I can listen and make people collaborate. I can also condense fairly complicated issues into smaller parts that are more easily digested. On the weak side, I may not be the most patient person, I am not good at reading other people, and I wish I would be better at saying “no”.

  • ©ERS 2015

Breathe articles are open access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Licence 4.0.

PreviousNext
Back to top
Vol 11 Issue 4 Table of Contents
Breathe: 11 (4)
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on European Respiratory Society .

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Confidences de Salon: Jørgen Vestbo
(Your Name) has sent you a message from European Respiratory Society
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the European Respiratory Society web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Print
Citation Tools
Confidences de Salon: Jørgen Vestbo
Breathe Dec 2015, 11 (4) 319-320; DOI: 10.1183/20734735.114115

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero

Share
Confidences de Salon: Jørgen Vestbo
Breathe Dec 2015, 11 (4) 319-320; DOI: 10.1183/20734735.114115
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Technorati logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Connotea logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Full Text (PDF)

Jump To

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Did you always dream of being involved in medical research/ healthcare?
    • What is the best advice you had when you were starting your professional career?
    • What advice would you give someone at the beginning of their professional career?
    • What has been the greatest change to make a difference in your field in your lifetime?
    • What do you foresee being the next great thing and what do you foresee as being the biggest challenge in your field in the next 10 years?
    • What is your favourite scientific breakthrough from any field?
    • How do you see the future of ERS?
    • When are or were you happiest?
    • What do you dislike most?
    • Who has been your greatest inspiration?
    • Whom would you most like to thank?
    • What do you consider your greatest achievement?
    • Who are your favourite authors?
    • Where would you most like to live?
    • What qualities do you appreciate most in your friends and colleagues?
    • What do you consider to be your strengths and weaknesses?
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

More in this TOC Section

  • Lung cancer screening by volume CT
  • In pursuit of the primary
  • A rare complication in a case of nonsmall cell lung carcinoma
Show more Expert opinion

Related Articles

Navigate

  • Home
  • Current issue
  • Archive

About Breathe

  • Journal information
  • Editorial board
  • Press
  • Permissions and reprints
  • Advertising

The European Respiratory Society

  • Society home
  • myERS
  • Privacy policy
  • Accessibility

ERS publications

  • European Respiratory Journal
  • ERJ Open Research
  • European Respiratory Review
  • Breathe
  • ERS books online
  • ERS Bookshop

Help

  • Feedback

For authors

  • Intructions for authors
  • Publication ethics and malpractice
  • Submit a manuscript

For readers

  • Alerts
  • Subjects
  • RSS

Subscriptions

  • Accessing the ERS publications

Contact us

European Respiratory Society
442 Glossop Road
Sheffield S10 2PX
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 114 2672860
Email: journals@ersnet.org

ISSN

Print ISSN: 1810-6838
Online ISSN: 2073-4735

Copyright © 2023 by the European Respiratory Society