Catharina Boehme

Catharina Boehme
Speaking at the 2021 World Economic Forum
Education	University of Munich (Dr. med.) Charité (public health) IMD (management)
Medical career
Institutions	FIND WHO
Assistant Director-General External Relations and Governance of WHO
Incumbent
Assumed office May 2023

Catharina Boehme is a global health leader, physician, and the Assistant Director-General for External Relations and Governance ^[1] of the World Health Organization. She previously served as WHO Chef de Cabinet, and is known for her work in developing diagnostic tests for diseases such as tuberculosis and for advocating for increased testing for the COVID-19 disease.

Early life and education

Boehme graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree in 2002 in Internal Medicine from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. ^[2] She has diplomas in Public Health from Charité and in Management & Leadership from the International Institute for Management Development at Heidelberg University. ^[3]

Career

Early in her career, Boehme worked at the Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases in Munich and established a tuberculosis diagnostic research unit in Tanzania. ^[4]

Boehme became Chief Executive Officer of Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) in 2013. In this capacity, she worked on a collaboration with other partners within the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator to make tests for COVID-19 more broadly available. ^{[5] [2]} In 2021 Boehme joined the World Health Organization as Chef de Cabinet to Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. ^[6]

Research

Boehme's early research was on an enzyme within the parasite that causes malaria, ^[7] and the development of new testing methods for the detection of tuberculosis. ^{[8] [9] [10]} Boehme has written in Nature Medicine about the need for diagnostic testing as a means to prevent the spread of diseases such as COVID-19. ^[11]

Other activities

• World Health Summit (WHS), Member of the Steering Committee ^[12]

Selected publications

• Boehme, Catharina C.; Nabeta, Pamela; Hillemann, Doris; Nicol, Mark P.; Shenai, Shubhada; Krapp, Fiorella; Allen, Jenny; Tahirli, Rasim; Blakemore, Robert; Rustomjee, Roxana; Milovic, Ana (9 September 2010). "Rapid Molecular Detection of Tuberculosis and Rifampin Resistance". New England Journal of Medicine. 363 (11): 1005–1015. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa0907847. ISSN   0028-4793. PMC   2947799 . PMID   20825313.
• Boehme, Catharina C; Nicol, Mark P; Nabeta, Pamela; Michael, Joy S; Gotuzzo, Eduardo; Tahirli, Rasim; Gler, Ma Tarcela; Blakemore, Robert; Worodria, William; Gray, Christen; Huang, Laurence (2011). "Feasibility, diagnostic accuracy, and effectiveness of decentralised use of the Xpert MTB/RIF test for diagnosis of tuberculosis and multidrug resistance: a multicentre implementation study". The Lancet. 377 (9776): 1495–1505. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(11)60438-8. ISSN   0140-6736. PMC   3085933 . PMID   21507477.
• Boehme, Catharina C.; Nabeta, Pamela; Henostroza, German; Raqib, Rubhana; Rahim, Zeaur; Gerhardt, Martina; Sanga, Erica; Hoelscher, Michael; Notomi, Tsugunori; Hase, Tetsu; Perkins, Mark D. (2007). "Operational Feasibility of Using Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification for Diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Microscopy Centers of Developing Countries". Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 45 (6): 1936–1940. doi:10.1128/JCM.02352-06. ISSN   0095-1137. PMC   1933042 . PMID   17392443.
• Reid, Michael J A; Arinaminpathy, Nimalan; Bloom, Amy; Bloom, Barry R; Boehme, Catharina; Chaisson, Richard; Chin, Daniel P; Churchyard, Gavin; Cox, Helen; Ditiu, Lucica; Dybul, Mark (2019). "Building a tuberculosis-free world: The Lancet Commission on tuberculosis". The Lancet. 393 (10178): 1331–1384. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(19)30024-8. hdl: 1765/115959 . ISSN   0140-6736. PMID   30904263. S2CID   84182624.
• Boehme, Catharina; Hannay, Emma; Sampath, Rangarajan (2021). "SARS-CoV-2 testing for public health use: core principles and considerations for defined use settings". The Lancet Global Health. 9 (3): e247 –e249. doi:10.1016/s2214-109x(21)00006-1. ISSN   2214-109X. PMC   7906635 . PMID   33516282.

References

1. "Key leadership appointments made to drive WHO strategic direction and initiatives". WHO website. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
2. "ORCID". orcid.org. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
3. "Catharina Boehme" (PDF). Stop TB Partnership.
4. "Catharina Boehme" (PDF). World Health Organization.
5. Murray, Sarah (19 October 2020). "Pandemic gives diagnostics sector a shot in the arm". Financial Times. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
6. "WHO Headquarters Leadership Team". www.who.int. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
7. Böhme, Catharina C.; Arscott, L. David; Becker, Katja; Schirmer, R. Heiner; Williams, Charles H. (2000). "Kinetic Characterization of Glutathione Reductase from the Malarial Parasite Plasmodium falciparum". Journal of Biological Chemistry. 275 (48): 37317–37323. doi: 10.1074/jbc.m007695200 . ISSN   0021-9258. PMID   10969088.
8. Boehme, C.; Molokova, E.; Minja, F.; Geis, S.; Loscher, T.; Maboko, L.; Koulchin, V.; Hoelscher, M. (1 December 2005). "Detection of mycobacterial lipoarabinomannan with an antigen-capture ELISA in unprocessed urine of Tanzanian patients with suspected tuberculosis" . Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 99 (12): 893–900. doi:10.1016/j.trstmh.2005.04.014. ISSN   0035-9203. PMID   16139316.
9. Boehme, Catharina C.; Nabeta, Pamela; Henostroza, German; Raqib, Rubhana; Rahim, Zeaur; Gerhardt, Martina; Sanga, Erica; Hoelscher, Michael; Notomi, Tsugunori; Hase, Tetsu; Perkins, Mark D. (2007). "Operational Feasibility of Using Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification for Diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Microscopy Centers of Developing Countries". Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 45 (6): 1936–1940. doi:10.1128/JCM.02352-06. ISSN   0095-1137. PMC   1933042 . PMID   17392443.
10. Boehme, Catharina C.; Nabeta, Pamela; Hillemann, Doris; Nicol, Mark P.; Shenai, Shubhada; Krapp, Fiorella; Allen, Jenny; Tahirli, Rasim; Blakemore, Robert; Rustomjee, Roxana; Milovic, Ana (9 September 2010). "Rapid Molecular Detection of Tuberculosis and Rifampin Resistance". New England Journal of Medicine. 363 (11): 1005–1015. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa0907847. ISSN   0028-4793. PMC   2947799 . PMID   20825313.
11. Boehme, Catharina; Hannay, Emma; Pai, Madhukar (2021). "Promoting diagnostics as a global good". Nature Medicine. 27 (3): 367–368. doi: 10.1038/s41591-020-01215-3 . ISSN   1078-8956. PMID   33723445. S2CID   232245085.
12. Leadership World Health Summit (WHS).

External links

• Catharina Boehme publications indexed by Google Scholar