Im writing to apply for Summer Research Program in Medical Sciences that your university, Tsukuba

University, will held this July-August, in which im very interested. I already read all of biochem and
public health programs and i must say, i have interest in all of it. As a Indonesian medical student, I
studied pre-clinical and clinical subjects. Although i already passed all the test, still, so many
questions remain unanswered. I want to learn more. I saw this opportunity and i dont want to miss
it. For Indonesian medical practitioners, researches about biochem, public health, and other pre-
clinical subjects are still limited. I have to go abroad to know more.
Above all of your research/ summer school programs, public health program caught my eyes the
most. Im interested in public health, especially health care system. Indonesia has just established a
new health care insurance system called Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (Nations Universal Healthcare
Insurance). With the new policy and system, our nation is forced to focus all health program on
primary health care, instead of secondary and tertiary health care. Indonesias primary health care is
mainly run by Puskesmas (Center of Regions Health care facilities) and Family Physician Clinics. Until
now, the system is not well run because of many factors that need to be fixed.
Just until Nations Universal Health Care Insurance established, Indonesian people prefer go to
hospital and specialist instead of Puskemas and General Practitioners (GP). There were rumours that
said the GP is not competent and only give same medications for all disease orPuskesmas service
is bad. Well, actually, those rumours are not all wrong. At that time, Puskesmas services were bad.
Start with the doctors-too-flexible-schedule that made it hard for the patient to know when the
doctors going to come, until the sanitation problems that made the patient felt gross. The new
system makes those mistake has to be fixed. Within months, step by step, Puskesmas started to
build a new image. They fixed the services, even the doctors try to update their knowledge and
upgrade their service. Unfortunetly, its still not enough. One of my concern, is antenatal care (ANC)
service in Puskesmas. We still dont whats wrong in our system that makes ANC service in
Puskesmas cant work optimally. Doctors and midwives already given the training thats necessary to
perform optimal ANC, but still it cant be done optimally, and the impact can be seen on the
maternal mortality rate which is very high, increasing until reach the point 259/ 100.000 live births.
I already read about Japan healthcare and couldnt help but amazed. Universal health care coverage
has already been established since 1961 and has covered almost all of Japan residents. The system
allows Japan resident to access healthcare with affordable costs. From what I see, the system is
successfully implemented in Japan. One of the indicator is maternal mortality ratio that is one of the
lowest in the world (74/100.000 live births) and that thanks to optimal ANC. I think, the system is
similar to Indonesia healthcare system so i can learn and compare to Indonesia health care system.
Im sure many things has to be done to fix Indonesias new healthcare system, and not just ANC. In
order to know whats wrong, i need to know whats right. I think Japan, especially Tsukuba
University which provide the research program for public health service, can be a place for me to
study and help me reach my goal, to establish a better healthcare service in Indonesia.