Karina Kielmann

Karina Kielmann is Reader (Associate Professor) at the Institute of Global Health & Development at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.  She trained in medical anthropology (McGill University) and global public health (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) and has 20 years of experience in research, teaching, and developing capacity for applying social science theory and methods to global health issues.  Before joining QMU, she was based at the London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine (2001-2011) as a lecturer and social science advisor with three successive research consortia on tuberculosis (TB) and HIV care in India and Southern Africa funded through the Department for International Development (DfID).  Her current research examines how health systems can become more responsive and accountable to individuals living with HIV, TB and drug-resistant TB and is funded through the Joint Health Systems Research Initiative, the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). She currently co-leads two projects in South Africa adopting systems-based, realist approaches to examine 1) emerging models of decentralised care for DR-TB and 2) implementation of facility-based infection prevention and control measures to reduce nosocomial transmission of DR-TB. More recently, she has started to work on TB in the UK, investigating the impact of social and structural factors on treatment pathways for individuals with TB.