معرفی
Karen Finnegan, Ph.D., is the Cummings Foundation Professor at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. Her work focuses on strengthening health systems in low-resource settings, particularly in rural Madagascar and sub-Saharan Africa. She leads interdisciplinary research on community health worker programs, geographic barriers to healthcare access, pandemic response strategies, and health system resilience in the face of climate change.
Her research integrates spatial analysis, epidemiological modeling, and health policy evaluation, with a focus on equitable healthcare delivery. Key projects include the Ifanadiana District Health System Strengthening Initiative in Madagascar, which examines how community-based interventions and geographic data can reduce healthcare disparities. She also contributed to global studies on universal health coverage through professionalized community health workforces and evaluated the impact of extreme weather events on health systems.
Dr. Finnegan collaborates with institutions like the Paul Farmer Collaborative and the Global Health Delivery Partnership, emphasizing data-driven solutions to global health challenges. Her work spans infectious disease control (e.g., malaria, tuberculosis, and pandemic response), maternal-child health outcomes, and the socioeconomic determinants of healthcare access in marginalized populations.
Her publications highlight methodological innovations in spatial epidemiology and health system evaluation, alongside policy recommendations for scaling effective interventions. Current research priorities include optimizing community health worker programs, mitigating geographic healthcare inequities, and advancing climate-resilient health systems in low-income regions.
