By creating opportunities for yourself to study hard in the SPH, you can afford to take on small challenges, which may lead to unexpected encounters and serendipity!

　I was interested in public health, particularly global health and the use of technology to improve health standards in under-resourced areas. I initially considered schools of public health in Europe or the United States, but when I learned that St. Luke's Graduate School of Public Health offers the same level of education in English as in Europe and the United States, and that I can balance my studies while continuing to work as a clinician in Japan, I was attracted to the school and decided to enter.
After completing my studies, I joined CureApp Inc., a company that develops SaMD (Software as a Medical Device) to treat diseases. I am currently engaged as director (Chief Medical Officer) in charge of designing clinical trials, negotiating with regulatory authorities, social implementation through insurance reimbursement and academic research. I am now working to realize the organization's mission of Re-evolving "therapeutics" with software, and despite the difficulties, I am firmly committed to helping the new therapeutic modality, SaMD, a therapeutic medical device program, take root in society.
In a sense, everything I learned while in the school is helping me in my current work. Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics are essential perspectives to prove the effectiveness of the medical device program we developed. The Japanese healthcare system, the history of the healthcare insurance system, and what I learned in health-economics in the Health Policy and Management class are useful in my current work when considering pharmaceutical affairs and insurance reimbursement of digital therapeutics, and in giving myself confidence that our innovations are socially useful and should be introduced to society even with limited healthcare financial resources. Environmental Health and Medical Informatics facilitate my understanding of the background of various regulations and how our products are positioned. I am very grateful for the study at the SPH. I don't think I would be able to do the wide range of work I do now without having completed this degree.
　
◇Advice to those who are considering enrollment
Before entering St. Luke's SPH, I was so busy with my daily clinical duties that I seemed to have lost sight of my major career goal. After entering the school, I gained a systematic understanding of public health, and through gathering information with a broad perspective, I was blessed with luck and fate, and was able to take the next step in my career. In that sense, I believe that the period of study at this school provides an opportunity for those who are forming their careers in the public health field to satisfy their various academic interests, and also to stop for a moment and reflect on their future goals and what they really want to achieve. They say that many career drifts are brought about by chance. I believe it is okay to have a vague idea of what you want to do when entering the school, say “something different besides clinical duty”. It may lead to unexpected career serendipity to create an opportunity to study at a graduate school and to have having enough time to take on small challenges. I think that St. Luke’s Graduate School of Public Health is a very good place for those who feel that their lives are somehow enjoyable when they can afford to experience such experiments and surprises.

July 2022