Kara Palamountain is a Research Professor at the Kellogg School of Management and a Lecturer in Kellogg’s Sustainability and Social Impact Program.
Palamountain has managed over 50 Kellogg field research teams conducting market entry analysis for medical technologies in over a dozen countries (Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, China, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia).
She is on the Executive Leadership Team, Steering Committee, and is the Technology Qualification and Innovation Lead of Newborn Essential Solutions and Technologies, or NEST360, a $65M grant (2024-2028) and $68M grant (2019-2023), which aims to reduce the neonatal mortality rate by scaling life-saving medical devices within the health systems of five African countries.
Palamountain has also served as an external reviewer for various projects under consideration by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a peer reviewer for Grand Challenges Canada. She also authored "Exploring the Case for a Global Alliance for Medical Diagnostics Initiative" published in Diagnostics, "Perspectives On Introduction And Implementation Of New Point-Of-Care Diagnostic Tests" and "Opportunities And Challenges For Cost-Efficient Implementation Of New Point-Of-Care Diagnostics For HIV And Tuberculosis" published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, and "Optimizing tuberculosis case detection through a novel diagnostic device placement model: The case of Uganda".
Ms. Palamountain is also the President of the Northwestern Global Health Foundation and was a co-founder of Minute Molecular Diagnostics. Prior to her work at the Northwestern Global Health Foundation and at Kellogg, Kara worked as a management consultant in Deloitte's Healthcare practice for over six years (1998-2002; 2004-2006). She received her MBA from Kellogg in 2004 and her BBA from the University of Texas at Austin in 1998.
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Students who enroll in SSIM 673-5 in Winter Quarter will automatically be enrolled in SSIM 673-5 in Spring Quarter. Students will earn one credit (.5 in Winter and .5 in Spring) and receive a grade at the end of Spring Quarter. The class meets during the final five weeks of Winter Quarter and the first five weeks of Spring Quarter.
The Medical Technologies in Global Public Health course provides students the unique opportunity to inform the design and launch of medical technologies for developing countries by conducting market research. The students' findings will be shared with the developers of the medical technologies, including Northwestern University and several companies and philanthropists.
Prior market research trips have taken place in India, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia, each with a focus on medical technologies such as HIV tests, tuberculosis tests, and neonatal devices for small and sick newborns. This class typically requires a two week market research trip to an African country during Spring Break. Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, a decision will be made in December on whether or not the course will be physically traveling to a country in Africa. The course will still take place even if the decisions is that it is not safe or reasonable to travel. Instead, students will be assigned to an Experiential Learning Project providing opportunity for virtual collaboration with partners across multiple African countries. This is the new normal for global health, at least for now.
Students will spend the second five weeks of Winter Quarter in the classroom learning the science of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other high-burden diseases; the background on medical technologies under development; and the essentials for conducting medical product market research in these geographies. Through interactive case studies and prominent guest lecturers, students will gain a holistic understanding and a broad overview of global health. During this time, students will also begin working with product developers from countries across Africa to better understand their products, needs and challenges.
Following this initial coursework, students will spend the next five weeks during the Spring Quarter conducting user interviews both virtually and locally to understand how the medical technologies are perceived by key stakeholders in the market, including: end-users at hospitals and clinics, government officials, and NGOs and distributors. These results will then be analyzed to synthesize key findings and provide recommendations to the developers of these medical technologies.
**Admittance to this course is by application only.**
Your accepted application for this class will also ensure that you will be enrolled in SSIM-673-5 in Spring Quarter.
This course may not be dropped once the student has been matched with a project or sponsor.
More information about the application and due dates can be found here
