This personal statement should reflect my interest in dermatology as a profession. I am a final year medical student and am interested in pursuing a residency in dermatology. By securing this elective rotation, I shall be able to get US medical experience and a good LOR for my residency application.
I used to think that dermatology was a relatively simple and non-challenging field with limited illnesses and clinical spectrum. But I was proven wrong when I saw a rare case of cutaneous T cell lymphoma during my time as a third year medical student. I remember seeing this lady from a remote village that came to visit her daughter in the city and noticed a rash and fever. When we first saw her, we thought it was a straight forward case of chicken pox. But the rash continued to worsen and her clinical condition deteriorated over the next 2 weeks to the point that she was in the ICU for Hemophagocytic lymphohistocytosis. We sent an exhaustive workup for her, including infectious, autoimmune, and other genetic causes but it all came back negative. Eventually, the diagnosis was made by a skin biopsy that showed a rare T cell lymphoma. That drew me into dermatology and I started spending more time in the wards and OPD to learn more about the speciality. I was amazed to see how diverse and varied the speciality was and a simple rash could be a reflection something more sinister. I have always had a penchant for solving puzzles and I use the same passion in diagnosing my patients in dermatolgy. I have also capitalized on various research opportunities that came my way which have fundamentally molded me into an intuitive medical student. I worked as a Research Trainee for a year for the Department of Dermatology at my institution where I was involved in literature review, data collection, validation and analysis. My most recent experience as a Clinical Research Coordinator has provided me the opportunity to improve my skills in REDCap, MS Excel and other softwares used in research.