I am now completing my Master’s Degree in epidemiology at the University of XXXX and would like very much to begin working towards my PHD right away. I am most enjoying the fullest of academic immersion possible in Epidemiology and wish to earn the terminal degree in my field so as to achieve my optimal career advancement. The XXXX School of Public Health at the University of XXXX is my first choice for doctoral study for a variety of reasons, principal of which is your thoroughly global focus and treatment of issues in epidemiology from a public health perspective with special attention to the world’s most vulnerable human beings.  I also very much appreciate the way in which your program is recognized worldwide and how you place special emphasis on issues in the area of cardiovascular epidemiology, the area in which I am already published and highly motivated to continue.  I would especially enjoy the opportunity to participate in research in this area as a student at UXX.

As a Chinese doctor and experienced researcher in China, I look forward to sharing in endless discussions in the Public Health Community at UNC with other doctors, scientists, and students from all over the world, helping us to better understand the unique challenges that we face, especially those of us from the Developing World where at-risk populations tend to be concentrated. While I look forward to the full gambit of courses in your curriculum, in addition to cardiovascular epidemiology, the other area in which I seek to cultivate a lifelong specialization is in Pharmacoepidemiology. Thus, UXX is by far the best fit for my interests, particularly as result of the enormous research resource represented by the “Center” (for Pharmacoepidemiology).

I was selected as research fellow by the clinical pharmacology unit at my university in China which included 6 months spent in the United States at Duke University (2012-2013) as a Clinical Research Trainee. Thus, since completing medical school, I have been closely engaged with and constantly learning as much as I can about clinical pharmacology, study design, new drug regulations, etc., in both China and the USA. I have conducted my own studies and published my results as well as assisting other researchers. I have benefitted enormously from systematic training in my Master’s Program, especially in methodology and quantitative skills. I aspire to share in  saving lives, millions at a time; and this empowers me to long hours in the lab, focused, dedicated, and committed.

I look forward to a long professional lifetime ahead of me as a public health research scientist working with global issues and institutions in both the USA and China. My mission is to engage in research that is geared towards having a progressive impact on public health policy. Throughout the course of my doctoral studies at UXX, I will continue to make progress at the development of a more in-depth and sophisticated understanding of public health issues at the same time that I become increasingly skilled as an independent researcher who is able to effectively lead research teams in the study of how to best prevent population morbidity and mortality.

I look forward to learning advanced epidemiological methods for observational studies of medications using large health care databases and I am eager to get involved in research projects that are related to my background and interests. My clinical and research experiences have left me shocked and dismayed by the gaps between trials and “real world” in the safety and effectiveness of medical intervention. I want to put what I learn about methodology to work, gain additional research experience, and engage directly with some of the most important clinical questions of my day, laboring to bridge the gap between the success of controlled trials and the reality of real work practice.

I participated in several research projects exploring cardiac safety issues of pharmacological interventions that were collaborative projects between Peking University and the Spaulding Clinical Research Unit in Wisconsin, studying, in particular, the potential ethnic difference of moxifloxacin induced QT prolongation between Caucasians and Chinese. I just completed the first draft of the manuscript this past summer. I also completed an animal study investigating the potential efficacy of metformin on cardiotoxicity induced by the breast cancer chemotherapy medication doxorubicin; a dose-responded effect was found between the metformin and an improvement of cardiac diastolic function. I currently work closely with faculty members in both epidemiology and biostatistics doing data analysis. For my thesis, I am investigating the potential determinants of arterial stiffness progression using 656 population based samples that serve as a basis for my conclusion that an accelerated increase of blood pressure and aortic calcification are positively associated with arterial stiffness progression as measured by brachial-ankle Pulse Wave Velocity (baPWV). I will publish this article as first author.

My principal interest is in the clinical effectiveness/safety of cardiovascular medications, especially among the elderly and cancer survivors; those are usually excluded from phase III clinical trials. I am also very much interested in the cardiovascular safety of novel anti-cancer therapies in “real word” health care. I also hope to attend UXX so as to learn as much as I can about pharmacogenetics, making the most of public health genetics combined with precision medicine. I hope to conduct research in pharmacogenetics dealing with QT internal.

I have a solid background in cardiology, experience with relevant studies, and completed coursework in the area of pharmacology and public health genetics, making me an excellent fit with your program. I look forward to spending the balance of my professional life immersed in the cardiovascular health-learning loop from developing new epidemiological evidence for risks to influencing treatment guidelines with clinical trials and confirming impacts on patient outcomes. I want to contribute to decreasing the enormous burden of cardiovascular disease by helping to develop creative behavioral and pharmacologic interventions that are safe for the patient.

I am beginning to understand much more fully the many complex relationships between clinical medicine, epidemiology, pharmacology, clinical research, public policy and globalization. Thus, I am a natural for the study of pharmacoepidemiology and medical interventions in human populations. I hope to begin studying at UNC in the fall of 2016 and I look forward to 4-5 years of fascinating research in your program. I visited UNC and met several professors and students of pharmacoepidemiology a few months ago and I see it as the ideal place for me to continue to advance as a professional researcher in pharmacoepidemiology.

I hope to serve as a clinical epidemiologist in the area of pharmacoepidemiology and non-communicable disease in China, leading multidisciplinary investigations into chronic disease, collaborating closely with government organizations and hospitals with specialized research programs, working together to insure the cardiovascular safety of commonly prescribed medications.  I look forward to leading multidisciplinary epidemiological investigations and medical interventions especially concerning the elderly, cancer saviors and organ failure patients, always working to develop a better understanding of what works in current medical practice and what does not. I thank you for considering my application to your unique and competitive doctoral program at UXX.