Kara Palamountain - Faculty - Kellogg School of Management

Kara Palamountain is a Research Assistant Professor at the Kellogg School of Management where she serves as the Executive Director of the school’s Global Health Initiative. Kara's research focus is centered on medical diagnostics for infectious diseases in the developing world.

In 2003, she began working with Dave Kelso on an initiative to develop and produce affordable HIV diagnostics for the developing world which later obtained funding in 2006 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). In support of this BMGF grant, Kara conducted an extensive trip across nine countries and forty HIV clinics throughout Africa to identify and prioritize the HIV diagnostics that the Kelso laboratory should focus. Her team deployed and adapted several marketing research techniques, including conjoint analysis and product concept testing, to help further define the appropriate product requirements for resource limited settings.

In addition to defining high priority HIV diagnostic products and their respective specifications, Kara has also played a crucial role in identifying the more strategic aspects of introducing a new HIV diagnostic into a resource limited setting. Most recently, she taught a class at Kellogg dedicated to medical product development in resource limited settings. Following the 10 week course and a 2 week research trip to Tanzania, the class then developed a market entry plan for HIV diagnostics in Tanzania. This plan includes a detailed assessment of how an HIV diagnostic test is approved, purchased, operated, distributed, and serviced in Tanzania. Her student teams have conducted similar market entry analysis in over a dozen developing countries.

Prior to her work at Kellogg, Kara worked as a management consultant in Deloitte's Healthcare practice for over six years (1998-2002; 2004-2006) where she helped clients identify and implement initiatives to become more operationally and cost effective.

Articles

Diermeier, Daniel, Kara Palamountain and Annette Krauss. 2010. University leadership for innovation in global health and HIV/AIDS diagnostics. Global Public Health. 5(2): 189-196.

Working Papers

Palamountain, Kara, Kearsley A. Stewart, Daniel Diermeier, Annette Krauss and David Kelso. 2009. Triangulation: A new model for innovation in Global Health and HIV/AIDS Diagnostics.

Cases

Palamountain, Kara, Sachin Waikar, Andrea Hanson and Katherine Nelson. 2008. Balancing Access with Accuracy for Infant HIV Diagnostics in Tanzania (A). Case 5-308-502(A) (KEL383).

The Global Health Initiative (GHI) is a tripartite collaboration among Northwestern University, non-profit donors, and commercial diagnostics companies. GHI attempts to bridge the gap between the market for sophisticated medical diagnostics equipment in wealthy nations and the need for point-of-care diagnostics in resource limited settings. In 2006 GHI narrowed its focus to HIV diagnostics for underserved nations.

The case examines the accuracy-access tradeoff related to the roll-out of infant HIV diagnostics in Tanzania. Tanzania has a prevalent HIV/AIDS problem, particularly in children. As of 2007, Tanzania had an estimated 140,000 children infected with HIV. Existing lab-based diagnostic equipment was either inaccurate for use in infants or required highly skilled health workers. Tanzania’s limited infrastructure also forced healthcare providers to choose between providing advanced care to a minority of the population and offering minimal care to the majority with poor access.

A Kellogg MBA student research team performed more than thirty in-country interviews to collect data on stakeholder perceptions of three infant test concepts: the strip test, the squeeze test, and the filter paper test. Across the three tests, access decreased as accuracy increased—rural labs could not find or afford health workers skilled enough to conduct the test. In general, interviewees closely affiliated with the government preferred accuracy over access. In contrast, private health facilities had to follow fewer regulations and preferred access over accuracy.

The case focuses on the decisions facing Kara Palamountain, the executive director of GHI, in her roll-out recommendations for infant HIV tests in Tanzania. It examines key factors of working in a developing country, including the need to operate in the absence of sufficient market research, balance the competing agendas of different stakeholders, and mitigate external risks such as major international funding drying up.

Palamountain, Kara, Sachin Waikar, Andrea Hanson and Katherine Nelson. 2008. Balancing Access with Accuracy for Infant HIV Diagnostics in Tanzania (B). Case 5-308-502(B) (KEL384).

The Global Health Initiative (GHI) is a tripartite collaboration among Northwestern University, non-profit donors, and commercial diagnostics companies. GHI attempts to bridge the gap between the market for sophisticated medical diagnostics equipment in wealthy nations and the need for point-of-care diagnostics in resource limited settings. In 2006 GHI narrowed its focus to HIV diagnostics for underserved nations.

The case examines the accuracy-access tradeoff related to the roll-out of infant HIV diagnostics in Tanzania. Tanzania has a prevalent HIV/AIDS problem, particularly in children. As of 2007, Tanzania had an estimated 140,000 children infected with HIV. Existing lab-based diagnostic equipment was either inaccurate for use in infants or required highly skilled health workers. Tanzania’s limited infrastructure also forced healthcare providers to choose between providing advanced care to a minority of the population and offering minimal care to the majority with poor access.

A Kellogg MBA student research team performed more than thirty in-country interviews to collect data on stakeholder perceptions of three infant test concepts: the strip test, the squeeze test, and the filter paper test. Across the three tests, access decreased as accuracy increased—rural labs could not find or afford health workers skilled enough to conduct the test. In general, interviewees closely affiliated with the government preferred accuracy over access. In contrast, private health facilities had to follow fewer regulations and preferred access over accuracy.

The case focuses on the decisions facing Kara Palamountain, the executive director of GHI, in her roll-out recommendations for infant HIV tests in Tanzania. It examines key factors of working in a developing country, including the need to operate in the absence of sufficient market research, balance the competing agendas of different stakeholders, and mitigate external risks such as major international funding drying up.

Full-Time / Part-Time MBA

Global Initiatives in Management (GIM) (INTL-473-0)

This course counts toward the following majors: International Business

This course offers students an opportunity to learn about non-U.S. business environments within an innovative and flexible framework that combines traditional classroom-based learning with structured in-country field research. From its inception in 1989 as one class of 34 students covering the Soviet Union, the program has grown to become a cornerstone of the Kellogg experience for many students. The school currently sponsors 13 GIM courses composed of approximately 400 students traveling to 15 countries. Evanston full-time students gain admission to GIM classes through the bidding process in the fall quarter. Classroom instruction is held during the winter quarter, followed by two weeks of field research abroad and seminar presentations of written student reports during the spring quarter. (TMP and EMP GIM classes sometimes follow different schedules.) GIM courses are organized by student leaders under the guidance of a faculty adviser. If you would like to become a GIM student leader, please contact the IBMP office for more information.

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