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Dr Heinke Kunst, MD, MRCP, MSc

Heinke

Reader in Respiratory Medicine and honorary consultant in Respiratory Medicine

Email: h.kunst@qmul.ac.uk

Profile

Heinke studied at the university of Göttingen, Germany. She trained as a junior doctor in London hospitals and was appointed to the London Northwest Thames specialist registrar rotation in Respiratory Medicine. She completed her MD in Pakistan in collaboration with the university of Göttingen. She subsequently did an MSc and Diploma in Tropical Medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In 2005 she was appointed as a consultant in Respiratory Medicine at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust; she was tuberculosis lead and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham. Heinke joined Queen Mary in 2013 as a Senior Lecturer to develop a clinical research group in tuberculosis and was appointed as an honorary consultant in Respiratory Medicine at Barts Health NHS Trust. She is now joint research lead for Respiratory Medicine at Barts Health and leads the Barts Health non-tuberculous mycobacterial service. Heinke was appointed as a Reader in Respiratory Medicine at Queen Mary in 2022.

Teaching

QMUL medical students

Heinke actively engages in teaching activities at QMUL. With regards to QMUL medical students, she teaches PBL sessions and contribute to OSCEs. She supervises SSC projects.

Academic fellows

She supervises academic fellows in conduct of systematic reviews and other research projects.

QMUL Tuberculosis Postgraduate (PG) certificate

She is a member of the steering committee of the QMUL TB PG certificate hosted by the Blizard Institute in collaboration with WHO.

External examiner PG certificate in Respiratory Medicine

She is the external examiner of the PG certificate and MSc in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Birmingham.

Research

Research Interests:

Heinke’s main research interest is in translational research themes in tuberculosis and latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). She is conducting research in migrant health and screening for tuberculosis, latent tuberculosis in primary care.  She has an interest in multidrug resistant tuberculosis and extrapulmonary tuberculosis including spinal tuberculosis. Moreover, Heinke has a research interest in other respiratory infections including non-tuberculous mycobacterial disease.  

She is chief investigator on the following grants:

Chief investigator 

  1. Barts charity large project grant “Can latent TB infection be treated in primary care”. (CATAPuLT trial)
  2. NIHR RfPB grant “Uptake, effectiveness and acceptability of routine screening of pregnant migrants for latent tuberculosis infection in antenatal care: a feasibility study. (STOP study)

She is a member of the British Thoracic Society (BTS) multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) steering committee. Moreover, she is member of the national BTS MDR- TB clinical advisory service. She is the secondary care lead of the Newham LTBI Screening and Treatment primary care steering committee which won a HSJ award in 2018 for best community redesign.

Publications

  • ERS TB monograph (book chapter)
    How do migrations affect tuberculosis burden? Tuberculosis control among migrant populations
    https://books.ersjournals.com/content/the-challenge-of-tuberculosis-in-the-21st-century 2023
  • 'A feasibility study evaluating the uptake, effectiveness and acceptability of routine screening of pregnant migrants for latent tuberculosis infection in antenatal care: a research protocol'. Rahman A, Thangaratinam S, Copas A, Zenner D, White PJ, Griffiths C, Abubakar I, McCourt C, Kunst H. BMJ Open. 2022 Apr 4;12(4):e058734. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-058734.
  • 'Extraspinal articular tuberculosis: An 11-year retrospective study of demographic features and clinical outcomes in East London.' IF 6J Infect. 2020 Sep;81(3):383-389. doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2020.06.041. Epub 2020 Jun 21.
  • 'Protocol for a cluster randomised control trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of treatment for latent tuberculosis infection in recent migrants within primary care: the CATAPuLT trial'. BMC Public Health. 2019 Nov 29;19(1):1598. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-7983-7.
  • 'Tuberculosis and latent tuberculous infection screening of migrants in Europe: comparative analysis of policies, surveillance systems and results.' Kunst H, Burman M, Arnesen TM, Fiebig L, Hergens MP, Kalkouni O, Klinkenberg E, Orcau À, Soini H, Sotgiu G, Zenner D, de Vries G. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2017 Aug 1;21(8):840-851. doi: 10.5588/ijtld.17.0036. PMID: 28786791 Review.
  • 'Maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity associated with tuberculosis during pregnancy and the postpartum period: a systematic review and meta-analysis'. BJOG. 2017 Apr;124(5):727-733. doi: 10.1111/1471-0528.14408. Epub 2016 Nov 11.

Supervision

MD supervision

She supervises Dr Matt Burman to do an MD titled "Latent tuberculosis infection screening and treatment in recent migrants”. This includes a systematic review about " The yield of active TB from screening migrant populations for LTBI”.

PhD supervision

She supervises Dr Ananna Rahman to do a PhD titled “Examining the uptake and acceptability of routine opt-out screening for latent tuberculosis infection in migrant women”. This includes a systematic review on “Uptake of screening for infectious diseases in migrant women in high-income countries”.

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