2017 AMRI Scholarship Program by Amirreza Reihani

Author: Amirreza Reihani

School: The George Washington University, Milken School of Public Health 

Area of Study: Public Health

 

My first toys as a child were a plastic ambulance and stethoscope. When I asked my dad why he got me the plastic stethoscope, he told me that he had to get one for me so he could still use his real one for work. I remember my father fondly as a wise, generous, and compassionate man, and his example motivates me in my medical career. He was a renowned surgeon and professor of medicine at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in Iran, and his impact on his patients, colleagues, and students is still felt twenty years after his death. I owe my passion for medicine to my father, who gave me my first opportunity to work in a medical setting when I volunteered at his hospital at the young age of 4.

Living my entire life in Iran, eventually working for three years as a general practice physician, as a non-Muslim, I learned that being able to relate to people from diverse backgrounds is absolutely imperative. I drew from my father’s example of warmth and generosity in my daily life, and I built lifelong relationships with people who were very different than me. My compassion only grew from these experiences and have made me a passionate humanitarian. The impact my father made on our community convinced me that medical science was the best possible way for me to bring health and hope to those who need them most. Public health, in particular, was always an interest of mine, as I could look around my own community and see the impact that education and preventive care could have.

I enrolled in university to study health sciences, and I eagerly pursued every available volunteer position that allowed me to help doctors and patients. I knew back then that I wanted a world-class medical education, but I could never have afforded medical school in the United States. Undeterred, I enrolled in a state medical university in Iran while following the textbooks used in American medical schools to ensure that I could perform at the same level of excellence. I even sought out Iranian professors who had worked abroad in order to get every possible insight that I could on modern clinical practice. I loved the rush of constantly learning and studying, and I have maintained the same intellectual intensity and curiosity long after graduation.

With my goal of practicing in the United States always in mind, I spent my three years as a general practitioner studying everything I could to improve my English and prepare for the USMLE. I devoted hours of study to learning American idioms and speech patterns in order to improve my ability to communicate, eventually achieving a TOEFL score of 102. One of the ways I mastered English was teaching English as a Second Language courses in the underserved communities where I worked. Not content to simply learn English, I also became fluent in French, earning two degrees in French DELF/DALF, A2 and B1. Not only do I love to study languages, but I have come to realize their value in the context of public health.

After successfully completing my examinations, I moved to the United States to observe clinicians in practice. When observing under neurologists at the highly ranked Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami, I saw just how powerful medicine can be when expertise and technology are combined. I recall one particularly incredible case where a patient was rushed into the emergency room with critical brain injuries be treated and stabilized in under 45 minutes, a feat that would have been completely impossible in an Iranian hospital. But moving to Washington, D.C. showed me an even more shocking truth – that those disparities in care existed even in the United States. Even though this hospital was mere blocks from the White House, conditions for many of the patients looked more like a third world country. Seeing the dramatic differences between hospitals in wealthy and poor areas showed me the urgent need for public health professionals to address these critical issues.

During my internship in Washington, I had the pleasure of working with physicians who were public health professionals, and their example motivated me to pursue training in public health as I continue to pursue my medical education. Their advice and encouragement has shown me that this degree would give me a greater platform to pursue policy changes that improve preventive care and healthcare access to poor and underserved communities. Working alongside neurologists, I was deeply saddened by the plight of the Alzheimer’s and dementia patients especially who were unable to afford the best available care. I believe that as a public health professional and trained neurologist, I will be able to truly impact the lives of individual patients and underserved communities. I look forward to lending my unique professional and cultural experiences to the diverse group of students who will be joining me in this program.  

By grasping better knowledge in Public Health in addition to my medical school training and post graduate experience in emergency care and internal medicine, I would deem it the utmost honor to further my education in neurology and the serve the public working toward improving patient care in the future.