XXXX is the only MPH Program to which I am applying since it is where I completed my undergraduate studies and where I feel most at home, as part of an established academic and civic community. I am currently working towards finishing up my studies towards the MD Degree and I am convinced that earning my MPH Degree at the very outset of my career will enable and inspire me to excel as a physician in such a way that I will be able to make my fullest contribution to my community and my profession. I look forward to planning, completing, and excelling in my studies in the Community Services track.
My professional dreams include working at a large hospital in the inpatient setting. I think an MPH would add to my ability to serve the hospital in a holistic fashion, including administration, ethics, budgetary, and other aspects of medicine. I want to understand my patients more thoroughly, in the context of the medical issue with which they are wrestling, in the light of their lifestyle, circumstances, and community. I have already taken advanced courses in epidemiology and biostatistics as an undergraduate student at XXXX and these will count towards my MPH courses completed.
When I was in high school, my mother developed a retinal detachment and required surgery that inadvertently led to soaring intraocular pressure and excruciating pain. We rushed her to XXXX’s XXXX Eye Institute where we were told that she needed immediate surgery. The complexities of health policy and administration were present and haunting us throughout the ordeal. Nevertheless, the experience stayed with me, and I continue to think often of that time, my mother’s recovery, and the challenges to which myself and so many others are introduced all at once when a medical crisis arrives in the family.
I date this period to the time that I first began seriously to think about studying both Medicine and Public Health. Because of the lengthy and terrifying medical condition of my mother, the trauma for me of thinking that I might lose her, resulted in my investing a lot of time over these years satiating the curiosity that dates from that period, reading about the bureaucratic challenges facing so many patients who find themselves in situations not unlike that endured by my mom.
I became an EMT as an undergraduate student, which allowed me to hone my clinical skills early on and get started helping the underserved areas of Los Angles. This experience also kick-starts my Spanish skills and gave me enough motivation to achieve competency in medical care. I still struggle in Spanish and hope to improve it during my studies toward the MPH and beyond because of its critical importance for the underserved, many of whom speak little to no English at all, especially here in southern California. My passion for the biomedical sciences also led me to become an ophthalmic clinical assistant at the Jules Stein Eye Institute. I found the epidemiology of ocular disease especially fascinating.
The processes of healthcare administration, as I began to learn more about them, also interested me a great deal; but my historical dissatisfaction with this aspect of medicine continued through my undergraduate experience and into Medical School, also at XXXX. As an undergraduate researcher at XXXX’s AIDS Institute, I worked to complete a chimeric antigen receptor lentivirus for T cell and stem cell-based HIV gene therapy. part of a collective effort to achieve a functional cure for HIV infection.
I learned how to formulate and test a research hypothesis and how to synthesize knowledge gained from clinical trials and animal experiments; and even how to design new therapies that offer hope for improving those currently employed. I was also very much drawn to the epidemiology of HIV, guidelines for prevention and treatment, social determinants, and health policy surrounding this disease fascinated me and I gave as much as I could to this struggle. This was one of the reasons why I took advanced level classes in biostatistics and epidemiology while still an undergraduate at XXXX.
Now a third-year medical student at the XXXX school of Medicine, along with epidemiology, I also rank quality improvement among my favorite subjects taught in our curriculum. Nevertheless, I sense what I want to describe as ‘disconnects’ between the fields of medicine and public health. It is not surprising that medical school must focus on clinical medicine and treatment, leaving what I view as important contributors to patient-health under-emphasized. Still, I find this unfortunate due to the importance of such knowledge for clinicians. Afterall, at the infancy of Public Health Institutions in this country, many attendees were in fact clinicians, underscoring the importance of the link.
I cannot help but get all geared up for studying Public Health as a student of medicine at XXXX because I am a frequent witness to various problems of resource integration. It would be a special honor for me to attend the Fielding School of Public Health at XXXX so that I learn to cultivate and practice a critical, community perspective on medical need and access, utilizing the skills that I acquire and refine because of earning the MPH at XXXX. I have extensive experience at the major healthcare centers in the greater Los Angeles Area, including UCLA Health, Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles County Hospitals, VA, and several others. This familiarity will help me to excel in your program as we work side by side in the building and maintaining of cohesive networks of healthcare advocacy.
I have already completed CLERKSHIPS in family, ambulatory, and internal medicine, as well as neurology and, currently psychiatry; after this, I will proceed to OB/GYN, Pediatrics, and Surgery. Hoping to complement the MD with the MPH, my focus will always be on the community, infectious disease and fostering preventive health and access to medical care one patient at a time – in LA.
Thank you for considering my application.
MPH Degree Personal Statement Medical Doctor