I hope to be selected to study for the Ph.D. in Epidemiology at XXXX University. XXXX is my first choice among doctoral programs because of the sheer excellence of your program that I have come to appreciate as an MPH student at XXXX. My central professional goal is to serve as a research scientist in medicine and health care, focusing on preventive medicine. For some time now, my dream has been to make progress toward becoming a physician and a scientist; and towards this end, I completed medical school in China, where I was born and raised, and then went on to study before coming to the USA to earn my MPH Degree.
My central professional focus as a researcher is on preventive medicine and lifestyle education; in this way, I hope to make my maximum contribution to my society, promoting healthy lifestyle choices based on the latest evidence-based research in Public Health and related fields. Born and raised in a family of medical professionals, I do not remember a time at the dinner table when the subject of medical emergencies and other challenges would not come up. My father is a cardiologist, and I have an uncle who practices medicine. Little boys love heroes, and mine were most of all my father and uncle and their colleagues, who I would hear stories about. Thus, going to medical school for me was a foregone conclusion.
I am working towards completing my MPH Degree at XXXX and serving as a volunteer research assistant at XXXX Health Study, one of the most famous lifestyle research centers in the USA. I hope very much to be accepted to the Ph.D. Program at XXXX University in the area of Epidemiology so that I might have the opportunity to continue giving my all to research in cancer epidemiology – the area in which I am writing my Master’s Thesis under the tutelage of one of my professors, who is also a senior epidemiologist at the California Cancer Registry.
Full of questions with no adequate answers both before and after my graduation from Medical School in China, I remained keen to continue studying in those areas of medicine and public health in which I felt the most significant interest and passion. As a result of witnessing the suffering of patients with end-stage diseases, I have paid a lot of special attention to studying the best ways to provide comfort and care to patients in these cases. Still, preventive medicine holds the top priority in my professional interests.
After finishing medical school, I decided that the best way to advance my career would be to earn the MPH degree focusing on Epidemiology at XXXX. In this way, I would be able to continue my training in data management, advanced statistical analysis, and interpretation of the results of numerous projects. I am incredibly grateful for the special training I have received working with various statistics programs such as SAS, R, SPSS, and Microsoft Access. I participated in several research projects exploring the demographics of cancer-specific marker Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) prediction, a collaborative project between the California Cancer Registry and the University Cancer Center in Loma Linda under the guidance of one of my professors, Dr. XXXX. This is a population-based, non-concurrent cohort study using statewide data from CCR to estimate the frequency of EGFR testing and EGFR mutation status findings among stage IV lung adenocarcinoma patients with a focus on demographic predictors. I worked closely with faculty members in Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Oncology fellows – doing data analysis and graph creation through SAS programming. The study has been accepted for inclusion at an ASCO conference.
My practicum with the Department of Patient Safety enlightened my understanding of the critical importance of data for improving h quality and patient safety, helping me integrate and apply classroom learning with professional experience. I received much hands-on training working as a statistician shadowing different doctors and senior quality analysts. I collaborated closely with the team to provide analytical support for quality improvement for each department. I also helped the group establish a clinical guideline tracking and reminder system, collaborating with several IT staff and setting up a new, reliable clinical guideline dataset with an automatic reminder system for periodic updating. Thus, I learned a great deal about how healthcare organizations use data, especially concerning predictive analytics.
As a medical student, I was involved in a research project titled the Function of Hcy-inducted MMP in the Pathogenesis of Atherosclerosis and the Reverse of Statins. It was my first time designing a comprehensive experiment scheme under the guidance of an advisor, putting rigorous experimental and statistical methods into practice. Close observation, creativity, and innovation are the forces upon which I thrive. Another highlight of my career so far, during my clinical internship in a training hospital, I also invented a new model tool, a “subcutaneous tunnel guide,” that helps reduce pain and increase the efficiency of the new cardiac pacemaker. I am proud to hold a patent in China for this device I designed and constructed.
My study of cardiovascular disease has been incredibly intense since I was invited to help Professor Dr. Guo to compile his book Varied Cardiovascular Diseases, discussing cardiovascular variation from perspectives such as danger factors, individual differences, and therapeutic doses. Through communication with my professors and consulting with articles retrieval, I finished compiling the chapter on “individual differences,” My work won encouraging comments from professors.
The major highlight of my career has been my work with the Adventist Health Study, a well-known research team conducting measurements of the links between lifestyle, dietary patterns, and disease incidence and mortality in assessing more than 96,000 SDA members. Based on my solid medical background, experience with relevant studies, specific training in SAS programming, and fundamental statistical reliable methodology theories, I feel that I am a strong candidate for continuing my academic research at the doctoral level, taking a closer look than I have had the opportunity so far, at the nutritional aspects of cardiovascular and cancer epidemiology – in particular.
I keenly look forward to a long and productive career as a lifelong learner and research scientist, giving my all to the advancement of Medicine and Public Health through research. Earning a Ph.D. in Epidemiology is essential for me to fully realize my central long-term goals and make my real contribution to my field, studying disease causes and transmission traces and helping raise health awareness among citizens to improve global health standards.
I hope to start my Ph.D. training at XXXX University in the fall of 2019, and I look forward to the next 4 or 5 years of pioneer research in the program. I am confident that my strong science background and research experience will enable me to hit the ground running in your doctoral program and excel. My colleagues say I am an optimist and always a good team player. I believe that my passion and determination for this discipline will enable me to make essential, even lifesaving, contributions.
Thank you for considering my application.
PHD Epidemiology Personal Purpose Statement Help