Prof. Kara Hanson

Prof. Kara Hanson

Board Member
Prof. Kara Hanson is Professor of Health System Economics and Dean of the Faculty of Public Health and Policy, at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her research has focused primarily on the economics of health systems in low- and middle-income countries.

Profile

Prof. Kara Hanson is Professor of Health System Economics and Dean of the Faculty of Public Health and Policy, at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her research has focused primarily on the economics of health systems in low- and middle-income countries. She has researched hospital reforms in Uganda and Zambia, focusing on the implications of two-tier pricing for equity of access to hospital services; the role of the private sector in health systems, and in identifying the opportunities and limitations of the private sector in improving the efficiency, quality and responsiveness of health systems; and health financing reforms, particularly the way that strategic purchasing can help to improve health system outcomes. Her current research addresses regulation of emerging models of private sector provision, such as e-pharmacy and the health system harms of excess market fragmentation. 

She was the founding director of the Centre for Health Economics in London (CHIL) (https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres-projects-groups/chil) and previously co-directed RESYST, a DFID-funded research consortium (https://resyst.lshtm.ac.uk).  She is an elected board member of the International Health Economics Association and of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.