Karla Unger-Saldaña

Karla Unger-Saldaña, MD, DSc is a medical doctor and health systems researcher with a strong interest in the successful implementation of evidence-based programs for equitable cancer control and prevention in Mexico.

She has a specific training and expertise in qualitative and survey methods. She has experience working for five years with a local NGO where she designed and operated programs to promote breast cancer awareness and facilitate access to screening in highly marginalized settings across Mexico. She then shifted to full-time research at the National Cancer Institute of Mexico to study the barriers that she had observed that lead to underprivileged women presenting with advanced disease and then not receiving timely treatment. Her research was the first to uncover the delays that the majority of women face before they can start cancer treatment in public centers in Mexico. These experiences gave her great insight into the barriers that populations from resource-constrained settings face when they seek medical care for cancer.

Understanding the problem, she became motivated to strengthen her skills to tailor interventions that may tackle access barriers and delays of breast cancer patients. She trained under the NCI's 2020 Training Institute for Dissemination and Implementation Research in Cancer (TIDIRC). In 2023 she was awarded a U54 NCI grant in a multiple principal investigator collaboration with Maria Fernandez (UTH Houston) and Martin Lajous (Mexican National Institute of Public Health) to increase Implementation Science research capacity in Mexico for improved cancer control.