Sarah Karanja
Afox Fellow 2025
Sarah Karanja is a social scientist and public health researcher committed to implementation science and health equity. Her research focuses on identifying and addressing barriers to healthcare access
Over the past four years, Sarah has collaborated with https://iceh.lshtm.ac.uk/ and https://peekvision.org/ to develop the Improvement Studies for Equitable and Evidence-Based Innovation model. This model aims to identify and test solutions for improving access to eye healthcare through adaptive randomised controlled trials. The interventions developed using this model increased young adults' attendance at eye clinics from 32% to 39%, leading to the conclusion that there was a 98.6% probability that the intervention was more effective than the standard care, triggering early trial completion.
During her AfOx fellowship, she plans to work with Dr. Luke Allen to expand this model to address broader conditions like hypertension, malnutrition, and diabetes in primary care. Sarah is a Senior Research Scientist in Social Science and Health Systems Research at KEMRI. She is also a member of the Scientific and Ethics Review Unit. Sarah is a PhD student at the KEMRI Graduate School and holds two master's degrees: one in Medical Sociology from the University of Nairobi and another in Global Bioethics from Anáhuac University in Mexico.