Hmwe Hmwe Kyu, PhD, MBBS, MPH,

Hmwe Hmwe Kyu, PhD, MBBS, MPH, is an associate professor in the Department of Health Metrics Sciences, School of Medicine, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. In this role, she leads a dedicated research team that focuses on modeling the burden of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, upper and lower respiratory infections, otitis media, meningitis, and encephalitis for the institute’s landmark Global Burden of Disease study.

Kyu’s research interests are in 2 main areas: triangulating empirical data sources to produce more accurate and comprehensive estimates of the infectious disease burden; and determinants of child and adolescent health, including contextual factors influencing the mortality among children and adolescents living with HIV who are on antiretroviral therapy. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Before joining IHME, Kyu was a postdoctoral fellow at McMaster University and the Offord Centre for Child Studies in Hamilton, Canada, and received a Lawson postdoctoral fellowship. Her doctoral and postdoctoral research focused on how individual and contextual factors (at the country, community, and household levels) influence childhood diseases and mortality, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

Kyu earned her medical degree from the Institute of Medicine, Mandalay, Myanmar; her MPH from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand; and her PhD in Health Research Methodology from McMaster University in Canada.