Research Fellow in the Institute for Global Health and Development, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh

Karin Diaconu is a health scientist with research experience across quantitative and qualitative methods. She is interested in health service delivery in humanitarian settings and low- and middle-income countries, particularly as relates to a health systems’ capability to offer care during times of adversity, i.e. exposure to prolonged stress (e.g. increased funding restrictions) or shock (e.g. protracted crises). Karin is also interested in priority-setting in such conditions; her PhD thesis explored priority-setting methods used to inform medical device procurement in low- and middle-income countries.

Karin’s primary research relates to a project exploring the resilience of health service delivery to Palestine refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon by the UNRWA health system against the backdrop of the Syria conflict. She is also involved in a project exploring the introduction of a provider-targeted performance based financing scheme for strengthening tuberculosis management in Georgia. In addition, she works on a project focused on the development, and eventual adoption, of a novel cholera biosensor for use in low-resource and humanitarian settings.