By: Nathan Anderson
For Mohammed Alzeen, healthcare is about much more than medicine alone. His experiences as a physician, international development professional, and researcher have shown him that patient outcomes are often shaped by decisions made far beyond the exam room. That realization ultimately led him to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where he is pursuing a PhD in Administration-Health Services.
Alzeen has built a career around understanding the systems that shape health outcomes long before a patient ever receives care. His journey has taken him from earning his medical degree in Libya and working in international development to conducting research that aims to strengthen healthcare systems and improve access to care for rural communities.
Along the way, he discovered that some of healthcare’s greatest challenges are determined far upstream of the patient encounter.
“International development was where I first understood how much of clinical care is actually decided upstream by the policies, financing structures, and operational systems that surround the patient encounter,” Alzeen said. “That recognition is what brought me into the field of health services.”
After earning his Doctor of Medicine degree from Sebha Medical University in Libya, Alzeen spent several years working in international development before pursuing a Master of Health Administration (MHA) degree at the University of the Incarnate Word. There he met Dr. Akbar Ghiasi, a mentor who would ultimately influence his decision to pursue a doctoral degree at UAB.
Ghiasi, himself a UAB doctoral graduate, served as both an example and an inspiration.
“He was admired across the MHA program, and his example shaped how I thought about what a career in this field could look like,” Alzeen said.
That influence, combined with UAB’s international reputation in healthcare strategy and health services research, made the decision clear. At UAB, Alzeen began working with Dr. Amy Landry, the Howard W. Houser Endowed Professor in Health Administration, who chairs his dissertation committee. Her scholarship in rural hospital governance and finance shaped the questions he pursues today.
Today, his interests have evolved into a focused research agenda centered on rural hospital financial performance and Critical Access Hospital outcomes.
For Alzeen, the work is deeply meaningful because it directly impacts communities that often rely on a single healthcare institution.
“I have found a sense of purpose in working toward the collective well-being of communities that depend on a single hospital,” he said. “Personally, I have learned how to hold steady under pressure, to take difficult feedback as information rather than judgment, and to keep going when results take longer than I want.”
Throughout his doctoral journey, some of the most impactful experiences have come from moments of intellectual challenge.
Long dissertation design sessions with Dr. Landry sharpened the questions he asks, while the methodological guidance of Dr. Ria Hearld, a professor in the department and director of the doctoral program, shaped how he answers them. These sessions, along with the doctoral consortia he attended, changed how he approaches research and how he understands his work as a scholar.
“Senior scholars discussed my work as if I were a colleague-in-training,” Alzeen said. “None of those moments were comfortable. All of them changed how I do this work, and looking back, I feel a quiet gratitude for every one of them.”
Throughout his academic and professional career, Alzeen’s journey at UAB has also been marked by a series of accomplishments that continue to expand his scholarly impact.
Alzeen has served as a methodologist and co-author on multiple student- and faculty-led projects that have been published in journals such as JAMIA, JAMIA Open, MDPI Healthcare, Journal of Hospital Management and Health Policy, Journal of Ambulatory Care Management, and Journal of Hospital Administration.
He also celebrated the acceptance and presentation of his first lead-author paper at the European Academy of Management and received invitations to doctoral consortia at the Southern Management Association in consecutive years.
Yet he views each accomplishment not as a destination, but as another step forward.
“Each of these felt like a threshold rather than a finish line,” he said.
Reflecting on his own experiences, Alzeen describes graduate school as both the most demanding and rewarding intellectual experience of his life.
“The doors that opened along the way, including the mentors, the conferences, the publications, and the unexpected conversations with senior scholars, were doors I did not know existed when I started,” he said. “If a younger version of me had been able to see this version of me, he would have started this journey sooner.”