Kamna Singh Balhara, M.D., M.A.

Headshot of Kamna Singh Balhara
  • Associate Program Director, Emergency Medicine Residency
  • Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine
Female

Languages: English, French, Hindi

Expertise

Emergency Medicine

Background

Kamna Balhara, M.D., M.A., FACEP, is an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and associate program director of the Johns Hopkins Emergency Medicine Residency Program. She is a founding co-director of the Health Humanities at Hopkins Emergency Medicine initiative and director of the Health Humanities fellowship.

After graduating from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Dr. Balhara completed her residency training at the Johns Hopkins emergency medicine program, where she served as chief resident. During residency, she completed her Focused Advanced Specialized Training in global emergency services. Upon completion of residency, Dr. Balhara served as the assistant residency program director at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio for two years before returning to Johns Hopkins in 2018.

Dr. Balhara’s academic interests include the health humanities in medical education, equity in learning and clinical environments, and disparities in access to care in domestic and global settings. She has authored multiple publications on graduate medical education, humanities, social determinants of health, and disparities in healthcare access, and has developed tools and resources for other educators seeking to apply the humanities towards equity in healthcare and health professions education. Her work has been funded by the AAMC, the Josiah Macy Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Emergency Medicine Foundation.

Dr. Balhara is a recipient of the Hopkins IEE Educational Program Award, the Johns Hopkins Diversity Leadership Council Recognition Award, and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Early Educator Award. She has lectured nationally at the ACEP, CORD, and SAEM national conferences and internationally at AMEE. She serves on the steering committee for the National Health Humanities Consortium, is chair of the American College of Emergency Physicians Medical Humanities section, chair of the  Diversity, Equity, Inclusion committee of the Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine, and is a member of the editorial board of the journal Academic Emergency Medicine. 

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Titles

  • Associate Program Director, Emergency Medicine Residency
  • Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine

Departments / Divisions

Education

Degrees

  • MD; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (2012)

Residencies

  • Emergency Medicine; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (2016)

Board Certifications

  • American Board of Emergency Medicine (Emergency Medicine) (2017)

Research & Publications

Selected Publications

View all on PubMed

Balhara KS, Irvin N, Zink KL, Mohan S, Olson AS, Tackett S; Emergency Medicine Education Research Alliance (EMERA); Regan L. "A sorely neglected field": A multisite study of self-reported humanities exposure among emergency medicine residents. AEM Educ Train. 2022 Jun 29;6(3):e10772. doi: 10.1002/aet2.10772. PMID: 35784381; PMCID: PMC9242415

Balhara KS, Weygandt PL, Ehmann MR, Regan L. Navigating Bias on Interview Day: Strategies for Charting an Inclusive and Equitable Course. J Grad Med Educ. 2021 Aug;13(4):466-470. doi: 10.4300/JGME-D-21-00001.1. Epub 2021 Aug 13. PMID: 34434507; PMCID: PMC8370377.

Balhara KS, Silvestri DM, Tyler Winders W, Selvam A, Kivlehan SM, Becker TK, Levine AC; Impact of nutrition interventions on pediatric mortality and nutrition outcomes in humanitarian emergencies: A systematic review. Global Emergency Medicine Literature Review Group (GEMLR). Trop Med Int Health. 2017 Dec;22(12):1464-1492. doi: 10.1111/tmi.12986. Epub 2017 Nov 20. Review. PMID: 28992388 

Balhara KS, Bustamante ND, Selvam A, Winders WT, Coker A, Trehan I, Becker TK, Levine AC. Bystander Assistance for Trauma Victims in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review of Prevalence and Training Interventions. Prehosp Emerg Care. 2019 May-Jun;23(3):389-410. doi: 10.1080/10903127.2018.1513104. Epub 2018 Sep 25. PMID: 30141702.

Balhara KS, Fisher L, El Hage N, Ramos RG, Jaar BG. Social determinants of health associated with hemodialysis non-adherence and emergency department utilization: a pilot observational study. BMC Nephrol. 2020 Jan 6;21(1):4. doi: 10.1186/s12882-019-1673-7. PMID: 31906871; PMCID: PMC6943919.

Videos & Media

Recent News Articles and Media Coverage

On the Medical Record: Podcast on Health Humanities in Emergency Medicine Audio Boom (Sep 29)

Picture of Health, Hopkins Medicine Magazine (October 06, 2022)

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