Sample Fellowship Application Personal Statement

A highly professional physician from Saudi Arabia, I like to think about the future and prepare for it, planning for what I hope will be my own central role as a leader in the movement of streamlining and upgrading our healthcare systems, infrastructure, and human resources - for many decades to come. I hope to be accepted to your competitive Healthcare Administration Fellowship at XXXX on the basis of my extensive preparation and my intense passion for the progressive advancement of global health care. A medical doctor in my own country, Saudi Arabia, I have also earned the Master of Public Health Degree from XXXX University and since September of 2014, I have been giving my all to my studies towards the Doctor of Public Health Degree (DrPH) focusing in Epidemiology here at XXXX.

I hope to be considered favorably for the Healthcare Administrative Fellowship at XXXX at least in part on the basis of my potential to contribute to the advancement of healthcare services throughout the course of a long professional lifetime upon my return to my country. The Saudi healthcare system is shifting to privatization, creating the need for professional healthcare administrators trained in the management of high-end healthcare organizations. I plan to devote a lifetime to helping to improve the quality of healthcare services provided to our people, in constant search for pragmatic balance between accessibility and price.  Currently, in my DrPH Program at XXXX, I use a variety of methods that I have learned in my studies in Epidemiology to evaluate the healthcare services provided during AlHajj seasons by studying the patterns of mortality during AlHajj and its association to the services provided in the hospitals serving the pilgrims. Being selected for your Fellowship Program will prepare me to make my maximum contribution to global health, especially as it concerns the Middle East region. In addition to the singular issues surrounding AlHajj, Saudi Arabia has one of the worst obesity rates on the planet. Thus, I hope to contribute to the development of a national plan to decrease the prevalence of obesity and subsequently chronic diseases such as Heart Disease and Diabetes Mellitus. The privatization of the healthcare sector should improve many services; but it also needs to be harnessed towards the most lethal of public health challenges.

Saudi Arabia faces many emerging, infectious diseases such as Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) alongside older diseases such as Dengue fever and Malaria, especially in the south of the country. Decentralization of control and prioritization, hopefully, will help to improve this and increase awareness of the need to utilize primary healthcare services according to local exigencies. There are also potential disadvantages to the privatization of healthcare services in Saudi Arabia, especially cost increases, particularly difficult for the uninsured. A rigorous auditing system needs to be implemented to guard against fraud. Once full privatization has been implemented, it is quite likely that many US healthcare organizations will go into the Saudi market. I look forward to being of assistance to these investors, especially with respect to my native Jeddah, the most international of all Saudi cities. At some point, I look forward to establishing my own polyclinic center and gradually transforming it into a state-of-the-art international hospital. In order to realize my long-term goals, I look forward to a full immersion experience in your fellowship program with special focus on emergency preparedness as well as quality improvement. I particularly look forward to engagement with the Performance Excellence Center. Thank you for considering my application to your distinguished program.