We’re pleased to announce that the Medical Data Science team is growing in Finland, as Tuomas Kovalainen joins the team.
Tuomas is a genuinely nice, and friendly person. He describes himself as passionate and inquisitive—and says some people find the things he says funny—even if he didn’t intentionally mean them to be!
“My background is, perhaps a bit surprisingly, in economics. I am currently finishing my research master’s degree at the University of Helsinki and Helsinki Graduate School of Economics. My electives have mainly focused on microeconomics, econometrics, statistics and philosophy”, Tuomas sums up his educational pursuits.
“Preceding MedEngine, I’ve worked with pharmaceutical, health register, and general register data at the VATT Institute for Economic Research. I’ve also done a traineeship at the European Central Bank working with the master and metadata of their Register of Institutions and Affiliates Data. Prior to that was my first foray into the health industry, working at the medical technology company Siemens Healthcare Oy, which ignited my interest in health technology-related topics.”
“That inspired me to try to get to the bottom of all the contradictory arguments.”
So what got Tuomas into economics? “Well, economics has always seemed to be something everyone was ready to opine on, lack of formal training notwithstanding. That inspired me to try to get to the bottom of all the contradictory arguments. The quantitative approach to social issues also had the allure of being ostensibly more valid than alternative perspectives”, Tuomas recalls.
“One of the most memorable things I’ve got to work with has been a presentation to all National Central Bank representatives on the data quality of freeform identifiers reported in our database. ‘I am also very thankful to have experienced the breadth of data and expertise available at VATT, and to have been academically stimulated by an elective I took in Philosophy of Economics,” Tuomas summarizes.
“What convinced me was the positive first impression left by the wonderful people.”
Tuomas says he chose to apply to MedEngine simply due to the fact that the skills solicited matched so well with his own conception of his competencies. “But what convinced me was the positive first impression left by the wonderful people I’d had the chance to meet, not to mention the exciting nature of MedEngine’s work and the cozy office setting!”, Tuomas adds.
Outside of work, Tuomas loves to read books. “For non-fiction, my go-tos are usually philosophy, culture and economics or political Science, but not business so much. As for fiction, my genre of choice is horror, with literary fiction as the runner-up.” Mirroring this, Tuomas also loves to watch horror films, with thrillers—and classics in general—occupying most of his big screen time.
“I intermittently get into playing chess fanatically!”
“I also love hanging out with my two cats—who are technically my girlfriend’s—Tyyni and Putte. While they aren’t always into hanging out, me being occupied with remote work sure seems to pique their interest.” For sports Tuomas likes to run, go to the gym and play badminton and squash. “Also, I intermittently get into playing chess fanatically”, he laughs.
Great, the running team needs more people! And we need to establish a MedEngine chess club ASAP!
One last thing. Tuomas tells us he’s quite into hip hop. And that “some people have been quite surprised by that!” Well, then you definitely have kindred spirits here!
A Warm Welcome to the team, Tuomas!
